Question

I can create the following and reference it using

area[0].states[0]  area[0].cities[0]  var area = [         {          'State'   : 'Texas',          'Cities'  : ['Austin','Dallas','San Antonio']         },         {          'State'   :'Arkansas',          'Cities'  : ['Little Rock','Texarkana','Hot Springs']         }        ] ; 

How could I restructure ‘area’ so that if I know the name of the state, I can use it in a reference to get the array of cities?

Thanks

EDIT Attempting to implement with the answers I received (thanks @Eli Courtwright, @17 of 26, and @JasonBunting) I realize my question was incomplete. I need to loop through ‘area’ the first time referencing ‘state’ by index, then when I have the selection of the ‘state’, I need to loop back through a structure using the value of ‘state’ to get the associated ‘cities’. I do want to start with the above structure (although I am free to build it how I want) and I don’t mind a conversion similar to @eli’s answer (although I was not able to get that conversion to work). Should have been more complete in first question. Trying to implement 2 select boxes where the selection from the first populates the second…I will load this array structure in a js file when the page loads.

Answer 1

If you want to just create it that way to begin with, just say

area = {     'Texas': ['Austin','Dallas','San Antonio'] } 

and so on. If you’re asking how to take an existing object and convert it into this, just say

states = {} for(var j=0; j<area.length; j++)     states[ area[0].State ] = area[0].Cities 

After running the above code, you could say

states['Texas'] 

which would return

['Austin','Dallas','San Antonio']