@cshooks/useTrie

A React Hook that returns a Trie, which enables a fast text match (Typeahead).
NPM Package
https://www.npmjs.com/package/@cshooks/usetrie
Installation
npm install @cshooks/usetrie
Note for beginners:
- Don't install
@cshooks/usetrie
as a devDependency
(--save-dev flag for npm install
) as it won't be included in your final build and will get an error complaining that the package cannot be found. - This library has a peer dependency for React version
^16.8.0
: This library needs to have React version 16.8.0 & up required.
Usage
You can initialize the trie with either an array of
- strings
- objects
1. Initializing the trie with an array of strings
Pass an array of string to the useTrie
hook and optionally specify the case sensitivity
(default: isCaseInsensitive = true
)
import useTrie from '@cshooks/usetrie';
function App() {
const words = ['abcd', 'abce', 'ABC', 'THE', 'their', 'there'];
const isCaseInsensitive = true;
const trie = useTrie(words, isCaseInsensitive);
const trie = useTrie();
return <div>...</div>;
}
2. Initializing the trie with an array of objects
Note that you need to pass the text selector method to let useTrie
know how to extract a text object from your object (refer to the 3rd parameter, textSelector
).
import useTrie from '@cshooks/usetrie';
function App() {
const words = [
{ id: 1, text: 'a' metadata: "1 - a"},
{ id: 2, text: 'dog' metadata: "2 - dog"},
{ id: 3, text: 'cat' metadata: "3 - cat"},
{ id: 4, text: 'hel' metadata: "4 - hel"},
{ id: 5, text: 'hell' metadata: "5 - hell"},
{ id: 6, text: 'hello' metadata: "6 - hello"},
{ id: 7, text: 'help' metadata: "7 - help"},
{ id: 8, text: 'helping' metadata: "8 - helping"},
{ id: 9, text: 'helps' metadata: "9 - helps"},
];
const isCaseInsensitive = true;
const textSelector = row => row.text;
const trie = useTrie(words, isCaseInsensitive, textSelector);
const trie = useTrie(words, isCaseInsensitive, o => o.text);
return <div>...</div>;
}
When you add a new "word" object to the trie, if you had already initialize the hook with a text selector method, then there is no need to specify it again.
const trie = useTrie(words, isCaseInsensitive, o => o.text);
trie.add({ id: 99, text: 'large text here' });
If you have already initialized the hook with the text selector but specify it again in the add
, then the text selector passed in the add
overwrites the one specified during the initialization.
const trie = useTrie(words, isCaseInsensitive, o => o.text);
trie.add({ id: 999, title: 'Title to search' }, o => o.title);
trie.add({ id: 123, title: 'Next title to search' });
When you add/remove an item in the trie, a new instance of trie is returned,
so you can monitor on the trie
dep when searching for a word.
const getMatches = React.useCallback(() => {
return trie.search(state.term).map(word => <li key={word}>{word}</li>);
}, [trie]);
Demo


A Simple demo Source
import * as React from 'react';
import { render } from 'react-dom';
import useTrie, { Trie } from '@cshooks/usetrie';
import styled, { createGlobalStyle } from 'styled-components';
import './styles.css';
const log = console.log;
const ContentContainer = styled.section`
display: grid;
grid: 1fr / 2fr 3fr;
margin-top: 2rem;
`;
function reducer(state, action) {
switch (action.type) {
case 'SET_WORD':
return { ...state, word: action.word };
case 'ADD_WORD':
state.trie.add(action.word);
return { ...state, words: [...state.words, action.word] };
case 'REMOVE_WORD':
const removed = state.words.filter(word => word !== action.word);
state.trie.remove(action.word);
return { ...state, words: [...removed] };
case 'SET_TERM':
return { ...state, term: action.term };
case 'SET_ISEXACT': {
return { ...state, isExact: action.isExact };
}
default:
return state;
}
}
function App() {
const initialWords = [
"abcd", "abce", "ABC", "THE", "their",
"there", "hel", "hell", "hello", "help",
"helping", "helps"
];
const isCaseInsensitive = false;
const trie = useTrie(initialWords, isCaseInsensitive);
const initialState = {
words: initialWords,
word: '',
term: '',
isExact: true,
trie,
};
const [state, dispatch] = React.useReducer(reducer, initialState);
const checkIfTermExists = e =>
dispatch({ type: 'SET_TERM', term: e.target.value });
const removeWord = React.useCallback(
(word: string) => {
log(`removing "${word}"`);
trie.remove(word);
dispatch({ type: 'REMOVE_WORD', word });
},
[trie]
);
const AvailableWords = React.useMemo(
() =>
state.words.map(word => {
return (
<li key={word}>
<button key={word} onClick={() => removeWord(word)}>
❌
</button>{' '}
{word}
</li>
);
}),
[state.words]
);
const setWord = React.useCallback(
e => dispatch({ type: 'SET_WORD', word: e.target.value }),
[state.word]
);
const addWord = React.useCallback(
e => {
e.preventDefault();
dispatch({ type: 'ADD_WORD', word: state.word });
},
[state.word]
);
const getMatches = React.useCallback(() => {
return trie.search(state.term).map(word => <li key={word}>{word}</li>);
}, [trie]);
return (
<React.Fragment>
<header>
<h1>Case Insensitive search</h1>
</header>
<section>
<form onSubmit={addWord}>
<input
placeholder="Add a new word"
onChange={setWord}
value={state.word}
/>
<button type="submit">Add</button>
</form>
</section>
<ContentContainer>
<section>
<h2>Available for search</h2>
<ol>{AvailableWords}</ol>
</section>
<section>
<article>
<div>
<input
placeholder="Search"
type="text"
value={state.term}
onChange={checkIfTermExists}
/>
</div>
<label>
Exact match?
<input
type="checkbox"
checked={state.isExact}
onChange={e =>
dispatch({ type: 'SET_ISEXACT', isExact: e.target.checked })
}
/>
</label>
</article>
<article>
The term "{state.term}"{' '}
{trie.has(state.term, state.isExact) ? 'exists' : 'does not exist!'}
</article>
<article>
<h2>Possible Matches</h2>
<ol>{getMatches()}</ol>
</article>{' '}
</section>
</ContentContainer>
</React.Fragment>
);
}
const GlobalStyle = createGlobalStyle({
boxSizing: 'border-box',
});
const rootElement = document.getElementById('root');
render(
<React.Fragment>
<GlobalStyle />
<App />
</React.Fragment>,
rootElement
);
For both String & Object arrays

API
useTrie
useTrie(
initialWords: Word[],
isCaseInsensitive = true,
getText?: (obj: any) => string = obj => obj
): Trie
initialWords: Word[]
: An array of string or object to populate the trie withisCaseInsensitive: boolean
: Word comparison flag
- Is "abc" === "ABC"? If
isCaseInsensitive === true
, then false else true
getText?: (obj: any) => string = obj => obj
: "Text" selector when when dealing with an object Array
- e.g.) When
[{id: 1, text: "text1"}, {id: 2, text: "text2"}]
is passed as initialWords
, then o => o.text
would use the text
property as the text to store internally.
declare type TextSelector = (obj: any) => string;
declare type Word = string | object;
interface ITrie {
has: (word: string, exactSearch?: boolean) => boolean;
add: (word: Word, getText?: TextSelector) => void;
remove: (word: string) => void;
isEmpty: () => boolean;
search: (word: string) => Word[];
}
declare class Trie implements ITrie {
constructor(
words?: Word[],
isCaseInsensitive?: boolean,
getText?: TextSelector
);
has: (wordToSearch: string, exactSearch?: boolean) => boolean;
add: (wordToAdd: Word, getText?: TextSelector) => void;
remove: (wordToRemove: string) => void;
isEmpty: () => boolean;
search: (wordToSearch: string) => Word[];
}
declare function useTrie(
initialWords: Word[],
isCaseInsensitive?: boolean,
getText?: TextSelector
): ITrie;
export { ITrie, Trie, Word };
export default useTrie;
Trie
search = (word: string): string[]
- Search for the "word" in the trie
- & returns an array of possible matches else an empty array.
- e.g.) If the trie has ["abYZ", "abcd", "abce"],
trie.search('abc')
will return ["abcd", "abce"]
. trie.search('none-existing-word')
will return []
.
has = (word: string, exactSearch: boolean = true): boolean
- Check if the
word
exists in the trie word
- a word to search in trieexactSearch
- match the word
exactly else does a fuzzy match
- e.g.) If trie contains
['abc', 'xyz', 'zte']
, then has('a')
returns true as a
matches the prefix of abc
.
add: (wordToAdd: Word, getText?: (obj: any) => string) => void;
- Add the
word
to trie - If the
wordToAdd
is an object and not specified in the useTrie
, then pass the getText
callback to let trie
know how to extract the text from the object.
- This
getText
callback persists
remove = (word: string): void
- Remove the
word
from trie
isEmpty = (): boolean
- Check if the current trie contains any words in it or not
Additional Note
useTrie
returns an instance of type, ITrie
instead of Trie
due to Trie
exposing more properties than necessary (due to lack of my TypeScript proficiency 😅)