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Lodash's `pick()` Function

Apr 10, 2020

Given an object obj and an array of string paths, Lodash's pick() function returns a new object with just the keys paths from obj.

const obj = {
  name: 'Will Riker',
  rank: 'Commander',
  age: 29
};
const picked = _.pick(obj, ['name', 'rank']);

picked === obj; // false
picked.name; // 'Will Riker'
picked.rank; // 'Commander'
picked.age; // undefined

The pick() function also supports dotted paths and any other syntax that Lodash's get() function supports. For example, if name is a nested object with 2 properties, first and last, you can pick just name.last and omit name.first.

const obj = {
  name: {
    first: 'Will',
    last: 'Riker'
  },
  rank: 'Commander',
  age: 29
};
const picked = _.pick(obj, ['name.last', 'rank']);

picked === obj; // false
picked.name.first; // undefined
picked.name.last; // 'Riker'
picked.rank; // 'Commander'
picked.age; // undefined

pick() is permissive when it comes to missing properties. If you try to pick() a dotted property whose parent is undefined, Lodash will just ignore that path.

const obj = {
  name: 'Will Riker',
  rank: 'Commander',
  age: 29
};
// Lodash will ignore 'this.is.not.in.the.object', because
// that path isn't in the object.
const picked = _.pick(obj, ['name', 'this.is.not.in.the.object']);

picked === obj; // false
picked.name; // 'Will Riker'
picked.rank; // undefined
picked.age; // undefined

Several other frameworks have analogous pick() functions. For example, Mongoose schemas have a pick() function that creates a new schema a subset of the original schema's paths.

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