Lodash Introduction
Lodash is a JavaScript library that works on the top of underscore.js. Lodash helps in working with arrays, strings, objects, numbers, etc. It provides us with various inbuilt functions and uses a functional programming approach that makes coding in JavaScript easier to understand because instead of writing repetitive functions, tasks can be accomplished with a single line of code. It also makes it easier to work with objects in javascript if they require a lot of manipulation to be done upon them.
Installation: It can be used directly using the CDN link or can be installed using npm or yarn.
Method 1: We can directly use the Lodash file in the browser. Go to the official documentation and copy the lodash.min.js file CDN link and paste this link inside the head section.
<script type = “text/JavaScript” src = “https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.20/lodash.min.js”></script>
Example:
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta name="viewport" content= "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <script type="text/JavaScript" src= "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.20/lodash.min.js"> </script> </head> <body> <script> console.log(_.isNumber(100)); console.log(_.isNumber('w3wiki courses')); console.log(_.isNumber(78.43)); </script> </body> </html> |
Output:
true false true
npm install lodash
If you are using yarn then you can use the following command:
yarn install lodash
Now in order to use Lodash, you need to require the code file.
const _ = require("lodash");
Now let’s understand how to use Lodash with the help of the code example.
Example: In this example, we will find whether the given value parameter is a number or not using one of the inbuilt methods in the lodash _.isNumber() method.
index.js
Javascript
// Requiring the lodash library const _ = require("lodash"); // Use of _.isNumber() method console.log(_.isNumber(100)); console.log(_.isNumber('w3wiki courses')); console.log(_.isNumber(78.43)); |
Step to run the program: Save the above file with index.js and open the terminal and type the following command in order to compile and run the program.
node index.js
Output:
true false true
Advantages of Lodash:
- It provides us with various inbuilt functions for collections, arrays, to manipulate objects and other utilities methods which we can use directly instead of writing them from scratch.
- It keeps our code more short and clean that makes it easier to understand and modify later.
- We have to remember Lodash functions and that makes out the task of coding much simpler.
- It is easier to start and learn for tech newbies.
- Instead of writing repetitive functions, tasks can be accomplished with a single line of code.
Disadvantages of Lodash:
- The firstmost disadvantage of Lodash is speed. Lodash methods take more time to execute than normal JavaScript functions.
- In JavaScript, we can chain many functions together as we want but in Lodash we can’t chain functions, we can only wrap them.