When we want to assign key values in a map to symbols we can use Clojure’s powerful destructure options. With destructuring a map we can use dense syntax to assign keys to new symbols. For example we can use that in a let special form to assign symbols, but also for function parameters that are a map. When we use it for function parameters we can immediately assign keys to symbols we want to use in the function. Clojure provides a simple syntax to destructure a key value to a symbol using {symbol key} syntax. The value of :key will be assigned to symbol. We can provide default values if a key is not set in the map using :or followed by the symbol and default value. This is very useful if we know not all keys in a map will have values. Finally there is a shorthand syntax to assign keys to symbols with the same name as the key: :keys. We must provide a vector to :keys with the name of the keys, which will automatically assigned to symbols with the same name. To use this destructuring to its fullest the keys in the map must be keywords. We can use the keywordize-keys function in the clojure.walk namespace if we have a map with string keys and we want to transform them to keywords.

In the following example code we see several example of map destructuring:

(ns mrhaki.lang.destruct-map
  (:require [clojure.test :refer [is]]))

;; Sample map structure we want to destructure.
(def user {:first-name "Hubert"
           :last-name  "Klein Ikkink"
           :alias      "mrhaki"})

;; We can define a symbol username that will have the
;; the value of the :alias key of the user map.
(let [{username :alias} user]
  (is (= "mrhaki" username)))

;; When we use a non-existing key the symbol will
;; have a nil value, like the symbol city in the
;; following example.
(let [{username :alias city :city} user]
  (is (nil? city))
  (is (= "mrhaki" username)))

;; We can use :or to define a value when a key
;; is not available in the map.
;; Here we define "Tilburg" as default value if
;; the :city key is missing from the map.
(let [{username :alias city :city :or {city "Tilburg"}} user]
  (is (= "Tilburg" city))
  (is (= "mrhaki" username)))

;; The symbol names must match in the definition
;; for the key value and the :or value.
(let [{username :alias lives-in :city :or {lives-in "Tilburg"}} user]
  (is (= "Tilburg" lives-in))
  (is (= "mrhaki" username)))

;; We can use :as to assign the original map
;; to a symbol, that we can use in the code.
(let [{username :alias :as person} user]
  (is (= "Hubert" (:first-name person)))
  (is (= "Klein Ikkink" (:last-name person)))
  (is (= "mrhaki" username)))

;; If the symbol name matches the key name we
;; can use :keys to define that so we have to type less.
(let [{:keys [alias first-name last-name]} user]
  (is (= "mrhaki" alias))
  (is (= "Hubert" first-name))
  (is (= "Klein Ikkink" last-name)))

;; Combination of destruturing options for a map.
(let [{:keys [first-name last-name city]
       :or   {city "Tilburg"}
       :as   person} user]
  (is (= "Hubert" first-name))
  (is (= "Klein Ikkink" last-name))
  (is (= "Tilburg" city))
  (is (= "mrhaki" (:alias person))))


;; Use destructuring in a function argument.
(defn who-am-i
  [{:keys [first-name last-name city]
    :or   {city "Tilburg"}
    :as   person}]
  (str first-name " " last-name ", aka " (:alias person) ", lives in " city))

(is (= "Hubert Klein Ikkink, aka mrhaki, lives in Tilburg"
       (who-am-i user)))


;; Another map with string keys.
(def string-map {"alias" "mrhaki" "city" "Tilburg"})

(let [{username "alias" city "city"} string-map]
  (is (= "mrhaki" username))
  (is (= "Tilburg" city)))

;; We can use :strs instead of :keys for string keys.
(let [{:strs [alias city]} string-map]
  (is (= "mrhaki" alias))
  (is (= "Tilburg" city)))

;; Or convert string keys to keywords.
(let [{:keys [alias city]} (keywordize-keys string-map)]
  (is (= "mrhaki" alias))
  (is (= "Tilburg" city)))


;; For completeness we can destructure symbol keys.
(def sym-map {'alias "mrhaki" 'name "Hubert Klein Ikkink"})

(let [{username 'alias} sym-map]
  (is (= "mrhaki" username)))

;; We can use :str instead of :keys.
(let [{:syms [alias name]} sym-map]
  (is (= "mrhaki" alias))
  (is (= "Hubert Klein Ikkink" name)))

Written with Clojure 1.10.1.

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