[javascript] What is the preferred syntax for defining enums in JavaScript?

As of writing, October 2014 - so here is a contemporary solution. Am writing the solution as a Node Module, and have included a test using Mocha and Chai, as well as underscoreJS. You can easily ignore these, and just take the Enum code if preferred.

Seen a lot of posts with overly convoluted libraries etc. The solution to getting enum support in Javascript is so simple it really isn't needed. Here is the code:

File: enums.js

_ = require('underscore');

var _Enum = function () {

   var keys = _.map(arguments, function (value) {
      return value;
   });
   var self = {
      keys: keys
   };
   for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {
      self[keys[i]] = i;
   }
   return self;
};

var fileFormatEnum = Object.freeze(_Enum('CSV', 'TSV'));
var encodingEnum = Object.freeze(_Enum('UTF8', 'SHIFT_JIS'));

exports.fileFormatEnum = fileFormatEnum;
exports.encodingEnum = encodingEnum;

And a test to illustrate what it gives you:

file: enumsSpec.js

var chai = require("chai"),
    assert = chai.assert,
    expect = chai.expect,
    should = chai.should(),
    enums = require('./enums'),
    _ = require('underscore');


describe('enums', function () {

    describe('fileFormatEnum', function () {
        it('should return expected fileFormat enum declarations', function () {
            var fileFormatEnum = enums.fileFormatEnum;
            should.exist(fileFormatEnum);
            assert('{"keys":["CSV","TSV"],"CSV":0,"TSV":1}' === JSON.stringify(fileFormatEnum), 'Unexpected format');
            assert('["CSV","TSV"]' === JSON.stringify(fileFormatEnum.keys), 'Unexpected keys format');
        });
    });

    describe('encodingEnum', function () {
        it('should return expected encoding enum declarations', function () {
            var encodingEnum = enums.encodingEnum;
            should.exist(encodingEnum);
            assert('{"keys":["UTF8","SHIFT_JIS"],"UTF8":0,"SHIFT_JIS":1}' === JSON.stringify(encodingEnum), 'Unexpected format');
            assert('["UTF8","SHIFT_JIS"]' === JSON.stringify(encodingEnum.keys), 'Unexpected keys format');
        });
    });

});

As you can see, you get an Enum factory, you can get all the keys simply by calling enum.keys, and you can match the keys themselves to integer constants. And you can reuse the factory with different values, and export those generated Enums using Node's modular approach.

Once again, if you are just a casual user, or in the browser etc, just take the factory part of the code, potentially removing underscore library too if you don't wish to use it in your code.