A record groups related data items into fields, which may hold different data types. In data-oriented programming, a record is represented as a heterogeneous string map rather than a class instance. section 3.1 section 3.2
A record fits into a data model alongside other generic structures:
- Store primitive values, positional collections, or indexes as record values. section 3.1
- Use string keys to access fields through information paths such as ["booksByIsbn", "978-1779501127", "title"]. section 3.3
- Manipulate records with generic functions, trading compile-time safety for flexibility and genericity. section 3.0 section 3.6
- Usually identify a record by the fields or indexes relevant to an operation rather than by maintaining explicit type information. section 3.5
A Book record as a map
A Book record can contain an ISBN, title, publication year, author identifiers, and book items. A generic lookup retrieves its title with _.get(catalogData, ["booksByIsbn", "978-1779501127", "title"]), producing "Watchmen".
