Elixir Best Practices - Deeply Nested Maps

When writing Elixir apps you’ll typically find yourself building up state in a map. Typically these maps contain deep nesting. Updating anything deeply nested means you have to write something like:

my_map = %{
  foo: %{
    bar: %{
      baz: "my value"
    }
  }
}

new_bar_map =
  my_map
  |> Map.get(:foo)
  |> Map.get(:bar)
  |> Map.put(:baz, "new value")

new_foo_map =
  my_map
  |> Map.get(:foo)
  |> Map.put(:bar, new_bar_map)

Map.put(my_map, :foo, new_foo_map)

That’s pretty complex for a simple nested key update! Elixir has a better way: Kernel.put_in/3

This function uses the Access “behaviour” to drastically reduce the keystrokes for inserting into deeply nested maps. Let’s take a look at refactoring the above example:

my_map = %{
  foo: %{
    bar: %{
      baz: "my value"
    }
  }
}

put_in(my_map, [:foo, :bar, :baz], "new value")

That’s it! The really nice thing about this function is that the 2nd argument is simply a list which means when we’re dealing building complex maps during recursion we can simply append to the list.

Similarly, we can get deeply nested values in a map using Kernel.get_in/2:

my_map = %{
  foo: %{
    bar: %{
      baz: "my value"
    }
  }
}

get_in(my_map, [:foo, :bar, :baz]) == "my value"

Let’s go deeper. Does the list syntax feel like too many characters to you? Let me introduce you to Kernel.put_in/2

put_in(my_map.foo.bar.baz, "new value")

This version of the function is a macro that will break up the syntax and deal with each part of the path individually. It may feel like magic but it’s just Elixir doing what it does best: blowing your mind.

Still going deeper…

Now its time to get fancy. Let’s say you want to update the values according to a function. To do that we’ll use Kernel.update_in/3

my_map = %{
  bob: %{
    age: 36
  }
}

update_in(my_map, [:bob, :age], &(&1 + 1))
#=> %{bob: %{age: 37}}

update_in(my_map.bob.age, &(&1 + 1))
#=> %{bob: %{age: 37}}

Dealing with Lists and Structs

Deeply nested lists can also make use of these functions. However, there is a difference in the short-hand syntax.

my_list = [foo: [bar: [baz: "my value"]]]

put_in(my_list[:foo][:bar][:baz], "new value")

This is referred to as “field-based lookup” and can differ depending upon the type you are acting upon. Maps can work with either form:

my_map[:foo][:bar][:baz]
#=> "my value"

my_map.foo.bar.baz
#=> "my value"

Lists only work with the bracket form:

my_list[:foo][:bar][:baz]
#=> "my value"

my_list.foo.bar.baz
#=> ** (ArgumentError) argument error

Structs only work with the path form:

my_struct.foo.bar.baz
#=> "my value"

my_struct[:foo][:bar][:baz]
#=>  ** (UndefinedFunctionError) undefined function MyStruct.fetch/2

I hope this helps you deal with deeply nested maps, lists, and structs!

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