If you use React, you would meet the scenario to copy the state for a slight change.

For example, for following state

const state = {
  a: {
    b: {
      c: 1
    }
  },
  d: 2
}

if we are to modify d to a new state, we could use _.cloneDeep, but it is not efficient because state.a is cloned while we don't need to change that.

A better way is to do shallow copy like this

const newState = {
  ...state,
  d: 3
}

now is the problem, if we want to modify c, we would have to do something like

const newState = {
  ...state,
  a: {
    ...state.a,
    b: {
       ...state.b,
       c: 2
    }
  }
}

We can see that for simple data structure it would be enough to use spread operator, but for complex data structures, it is verbose.

Here comes the Immutability Helper, you are asked to implement your own Immutability Helper update(), which supports following features.

1. `{$push: array}` push() all the items in array on the target.

const arr = [1, 2, 3, 4]
const newArr = update(arr, {$push: [5, 6]})
// [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

2. {$set: any} replace the target

const state = {
  a: {
    b: {
      c: 1
    }
  },
  d: 2
}

const newState = update(
  state, 
  {a: {b: { c: {$set: 3}}}}
)
/*
{
  a: {
    b: {
      c: 3
    }
  },
  d: 2
}
*/

Notice that we could also update array elements with $set

const arr = [1, 2, 3, 4]
const newArr = update(
  arr, 
  {0: {$set: 0}}
)
//  [0, 2, 3, 4]

3. {$merge: object} merge object to the location

const state = {
  a: {
    b: {
      c: 1
    }
  },
  d: 2
}

const newState = update(
  state, 
  {a: {b: { $merge: {e: 5}}}}
)
/*
{
  a: {
    b: {
      c: 1,
      e: 5
    }
  },
  d: 2
}
*/

4. {$apply: function} custom replacer

const arr = [1, 2, 3, 4]
const newArr = update(arr, {0: {$apply: (item) => item * 2}})
// [2, 2, 3, 4]

1. {$push: array} push() all the items in array on the target.

2. {$set: any} replace the target

3. {$merge: object} merge object to the location

4. {$apply: function} custom replacer

1. `{$push: array}` push() all the items in array on the target.

Watch videos for JavaScript Coding Question 12. implement Immutability helper

Watch videos for JavaScript Coding Question
12. implement Immutability helper