How to convert a String to a Symbol in JavaScript

Question

I need to find a way to convert any string to a symbol. If there was a function that did that, it would be something like this:

function toSymbol(variable) = {
//... converts var to symbol
};

//toSymbol("mySymbolString") would return: mySymbolString

Is there any clever way of doing this other than storing potential string to symbol mappings in a dictionary?

Possible duplicate of [What does this symbol mean in JavaScript?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9549780/what-does-this-symbol-mean-in-javascript) — brianlmerritt, May 29 '16 at 15:22
Do you mean a Symbol, as in: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Symbol Or do you mean to a variable? — freedomn-m, May 29 '16 at 15:42
@freedomn-m i meant it in the second sense. i need it to be a variable. thanks for pointing out the confusion. — qeroqazo, May 29 '16 at 16:09

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 29 '16 at 15:20

3

function toSymbol(variable) {
  return Symbol(variable);
};

Keep in mind toSymbol("some_string") === toSymbol("some_string") // false ( by spec. You you need to keep it in true - add memoization )

answered May 29 '16 at 15:20

Vasiliy Vanchuk

3

You can use global symbols by using [`Symbol.for()`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Symbol/for) instead. – GingerPlusPlus May 29 '16 at 15:30

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 29 '16 at 20:30

1

I need it to be a variable.

All global variables are actually a property of window

eg:

window.abc = 123
abc == 123

you can also reference properties using strings, eg:

window["abc"] = 123
window.abc == 123
abc == 123

If you're using namespaces or objects, then it's just the same, eg:

My.Namespace["variable"]=value
My.Namespace.variable == value

This gives your example "variable":

window["variable"] = value

it's not clear what you want to do with this, but you could make it = null or = {} to use later.

answered May 29 '16 at 20:30

freedomn-m

I needed this once. It was some utility function meant to be used in debugging/development on the JS console, and the utility function did an XMLHttpRequest. And you could pass an extra string variable to the utitlify function, and that then became the global variable name (global = in window) of the result of the XMLHttpRequest. And if you didn't specify the variable name, it was called result42, result43, etc. So, it's not even *that* weird wanting to do this! – mathheadinclouds Jul 23 '20 at 09:53

2 Answers2