unist-util-visit-parents

What is unist-util-visit-parents?

The unist-util-visit-parents package is a utility for traversing Unist syntax trees. It allows for visiting nodes, optionally filtered by type, and provides access to parent nodes during traversal. This can be particularly useful for manipulating or inspecting the structure of documents parsed into Unist syntax trees, such as Markdown or HTML parsed by remark or rehype processors.

What are unist-util-visit-parents's main functionalities?

Visiting nodes with access to their parents

This feature allows you to visit all nodes of a specified type ('paragraph' in this example) in a Unist syntax tree, and for each node, you have access to an array of its ancestor nodes. This is useful for context-aware processing or transformations.

visit(tree, 'paragraph', (node, ancestors) => {
  console.log(node);
  console.log(ancestors);
});

Visiting all nodes without filtering

This feature enables visiting all nodes in the syntax tree without filtering by type. Each visited node is accompanied by its ancestors, allowing for comprehensive traversal and manipulation of the tree.

visit(tree, (node, ancestors) => {
  console.log(node);
  console.log(ancestors);
});

Other packages similar to unist-util-visit-parents

unist-util-visit

Similar to unist-util-visit-parents, unist-util-visit allows for traversing Unist trees and applying a function to each visited node. The key difference is that unist-util-visit does not provide access to the ancestors of each node, focusing instead on simpler visitation needs.

unist-util-select

This package provides a way to select nodes in a Unist tree using CSS-like selectors. While it serves a different primary purpose from unist-util-visit-parents, it offers an alternative approach to node selection and manipulation in Unist trees.

README

unist-util-visit-parents

unist utility to walk the tree with a stack of parents.

Contents

• What is this?
• When should I use this?
• Install
• Use
• API
  • visitParents(tree[, test], visitor[, reverse])
  • CONTINUE
  • EXIT
  • SKIP
  • Action
  • ActionTuple
  • BuildVisitor
  • Index
  • Test
  • Visitor
  • VisitorResult
• Types
• Compatibility
• Related
• Contribute
• License

What is this?

This is a very important utility for working with unist as it lets you walk the tree.

When should I use this?

You can use this utility when you want to walk the tree and want to know about every parent of each node. You can use unist-util-visit if you don’t care about the entire stack of parents.

Install

This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 16+), install with npm:

npm install unist-util-visit-parents

In Deno with esm.sh:

import {visitParents} from 'https://esm.sh/unist-util-visit-parents@6'

In browsers with esm.sh:

<script type="module">
  import {visitParents} from 'https://esm.sh/unist-util-visit-parents@6?bundle'
</script>

Use

import {visitParents} from 'unist-util-visit-parents'
import {fromMarkdown} from 'mdast-util-from-markdown'

const tree = fromMarkdown('Some *emphasis*, **strong**, and `code`.')

visitParents(tree, 'strong', function (node, ancestors) {
  console.log(node.type, ancestors.map(ancestor => ancestor.type))
})

Yields:

strong ['root', 'paragraph']

API

This package exports the identifiers CONTINUE, EXIT, SKIP, and visitParents. There is no default export.

visitParents(tree[, test], visitor[, reverse])

Visit nodes, with ancestral information.

This algorithm performs depth-first tree traversal in preorder (NLR) or if reverse is given, in reverse preorder (NRL).

You can choose for which nodes visitor is called by passing a test. For complex tests, you should test yourself in visitor, as it will be faster and will have improved type information.

Walking the tree is an intensive task. Make use of the return values of the visitor when possible. Instead of walking a tree multiple times, walk it once, use unist-util-is to check if a node matches, and then perform different operations.

You can change the tree. See Visitor for more info.

Parameters

• tree (Node) — tree to traverse
• test (Test, optional) — unist-util-is-compatible test
• visitor (Visitor) — handle each node
• reverse (boolean, default: false) — traverse in reverse preorder (NRL) instead of the default preorder (NLR)

Returns

Nothing (undefined).

CONTINUE

Continue traversing as normal (true).

EXIT

Stop traversing immediately (false).

SKIP

Do not traverse this node’s children ('skip').

Action

Union of the action types (TypeScript type).

Type

type Action = typeof CONTINUE | typeof EXIT | typeof SKIP

ActionTuple

List with one or two values, the first an action, the second an index (TypeScript type).

Type

type ActionTuple = [
  (Action | null | undefined | void)?,
  (Index | null | undefined)?
]

BuildVisitor

Build a typed Visitor function from a tree and a test (TypeScript type).

It will infer which values are passed as node and which as parents.

Type parameters

• Tree (Node, default: Node) — tree type
• Check (Test, default: Test) — test type

Returns

Visitor.

Index

Move to the sibling at index next (after node itself is completely traversed) (TypeScript type).

Useful if mutating the tree, such as removing the node the visitor is currently on, or any of its previous siblings. Results less than 0 or greater than or equal to children.length stop traversing the parent.

Type

type Index = number

Test

unist-util-is compatible test (TypeScript type).

Visitor

Handle a node (matching test, if given) (TypeScript type).

Visitors are free to transform node. They can also transform the parent of node (the last of ancestors).

Replacing node itself, if SKIP is not returned, still causes its descendants to be walked (which is a bug).

When adding or removing previous siblings of node (or next siblings, in case of reverse), the Visitor should return a new Index to specify the sibling to traverse after node is traversed. Adding or removing next siblings of node (or previous siblings, in case of reverse) is handled as expected without needing to return a new Index.

Removing the children property of an ancestor still results in them being traversed.

Parameters

• node (Node) — found node
• parents (Array<Node>) — ancestors of node

Returns

What to do next.

An Index is treated as a tuple of [CONTINUE, Index]. An Action is treated as a tuple of [Action].

Passing a tuple back only makes sense if the Action is SKIP. When the Action is EXIT, that action can be returned. When the Action is CONTINUE, Index can be returned.

VisitorResult

Any value that can be returned from a visitor (TypeScript type).

Type

type VisitorResult =
  | Action
  | ActionTuple
  | Index
  | null
  | undefined
  | void

Types

This package is fully typed with TypeScript. It exports the additional types Action, ActionTuple, BuildVisitor, Index, Test, Visitor, and VisitorResult.

Compatibility

Projects maintained by the unified collective are compatible with maintained versions of Node.js.

When we cut a new major release, we drop support for unmaintained versions of Node. This means we try to keep the current release line, unist-util-visit-parents@^6, compatible with Node.js 16.

Related

• unist-util-visit — walk the tree with one parent
• unist-util-filter — create a new tree with all nodes that pass a test
• unist-util-map — create a new tree with all nodes mapped by a given function
• unist-util-flatmap — create a new tree by mapping (to an array) with the given function
• unist-util-remove — remove nodes from a tree that pass a test
• unist-util-select — select nodes with CSS-like selectors

Contribute

See contributing.md in syntax-tree/.github for ways to get started. See support.md for ways to get help.

This project has a code of conduct. By interacting with this repository, organization, or community you agree to abide by its terms.

License

MIT © Titus Wormer