Using Map object to implement a lookup table for HTTP status codes in a web application

23 Sep 2023

Managing and handling HTTP status codes is a crucial aspect of web application development. A lookup table is often used to map numeric status codes to their corresponding human-readable descriptions.

To simplify this process, you can leverage the power of the Map object in JavaScript. The Map object is an unordered collection of key-value pairs that allows for efficient lookup and retrieval.

Setting up the Map

First, let’s create a Map object that will serve as our lookup table for HTTP status codes and their descriptions. We can define it in a separate module or directly in our web application code.

const httpStatusCodes = new Map();

// Add some initial HTTP status codes and their descriptions
httpStatusCodes.set(200, 'OK');
httpStatusCodes.set(404, 'Not Found');
httpStatusCodes.set(500, 'Internal Server Error');
// ... add more status codes as needed

In the example above, we created a new Map object called httpStatusCodes and added a few common status codes along with their descriptions. Feel free to add more status codes based on your application’s requirements.

Retrieving Status Code Descriptions

To retrieve the description for a specific HTTP status code, simply use the get method of the Map object.

const statusCode = 200;

const description = httpStatusCodes.get(statusCode);
console.log(description); // Output: "OK"

In the above code snippet, we specified the status code 200 and used the get method of the httpStatusCodes Map object to retrieve its corresponding description.

Handling Unknown Status Codes

To handle scenarios where the requested status code is not present in the lookup table, you can provide a default description or handle it separately.

const statusCode = 400;

const description = httpStatusCodes.get(statusCode);
if (description) {
  console.log(description);
} else {
  console.log("Unknown status code");
}

In the code snippet above, when the requested status code (400 in this case) is not found in the Map object, the get method returns undefined. We can then handle the scenario by providing a default message or any other desired action.

Conclusion

Using a Map object as a lookup table for HTTP status codes provides an efficient and convenient way to manage and retrieve status code information in a web application. It allows for easy addition of new codes and descriptions, as well as efficient retrieval for handling HTTP responses. So, consider implementing a Map object in your web application whenever you need to work with HTTP status codes.

#webdevelopment #httpstatuscodes