What does the `map` method mean in RxJS?

Question

I\'m learning RxJS by reading this tutorial http://reactive-extensions.github.io/learnrx/.

I have a hard time understanding the map method of Obse

Answer 1

map works exactly the same for Observables as it does for arrays. You use map to transform a collection of items into a collection of different items. It helps if you think of an Observable as a collection of items (just like an array is also a collection of items), at least from the observer's point of view.

For example, take these 2 methods that you wrote to use with some arrays:

function multiplyByTwo(collection) {
    return collection.map(function (value) {
        return value * 2;
    });
}

function removeZeroes(collection) {
    return collection.filter(function (value) {
        return value !== 0;
    });
}

var a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 0, 5];
var b = multiplyByTwo(a); // a new array [2, 4, 6, 8, 0, 10]
var c = removeZeroes(b); // a new array [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

You can use these same functions for an observable:

var a = Rx.Observable.of(1, 2, 3, 4, 0, 5);
var b = multiplyByTwo(a); // a new observable [2, 4, 6, 8, 0, 10]
var c = removeZeroes(b); // a new observable [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

This is possible because RxJs observables implement the array operators like map and filter to have the exact same semantics as they do for arrays. If you know how they work for arrays, then you know how they work for observables.

This trick is the result of the dual nature of observables and enumerables.

If you work through the interactive tutorial you are viewing, it actually walks you through this process. I believe it starts you off by writing map operators for arrays and then in a later tutorial sneaks an observable in as the source.

P.S. It is an alias for select because of its history: Reactive Extensions was first implemented in .NET and later ported to other languages. Rx.NET uses the same operators that are used by .NET's LINQ (since IObservable is the dual of IEnumerable). LINQ's map operator is known as Select (and its filter operator is known as Where). These names come from LINQ's origination. One of the goals when LINQ was built was to make it possible to write database queries in C#. Thus they adopted SQL naming conventions for many of the operators (LINQ SELECT maps directly to SQL SELECT, LINQ WHERE maps to SQL WHERE, etc).