Delta

Deltas are a simple, yet expressive format that can be used to describe contents and changes. The format is JSON based, and is human readable, yet easily parsible by machines. Deltas can describe any rich text document, includes all text and formatting information, without the ambiguity and complexity of HTML.

A Delta is made up of an Array of Operations, which describe changes to a document. They can be an insert, delete or retain. Note operations do not take an index. They always describe the change at the current index. Use retains to "keep" or "skip" certain parts of the document.

Don’t be confused by its name Delta—Deltas represents both documents and changes to documents. If you think of Deltas as the instructions from going from one document to another, the way Deltas represent a document is by expressing the instructions starting from an empty document.

Quick Example

1// Document with text "Gandalf the Grey"
2// with "Gandalf" bolded, and "Grey" in grey
3const delta = new Delta([
4  { insert: 'Gandalf', attributes: { bold: true } },
5  { insert: ' the ' },
6  { insert: 'Grey', attributes: { color: '#ccc' } }
7]);
8
9// Change intended to be applied to above:
10// Keep the first 12 characters, insert a white 'White'
11// and delete the next four characters ('Grey')
12const death = new Delta().retain(12)
13                         .insert('White', { color: '#fff' })
14                         .delete(4);
15// {
16//   ops: [
17//     { retain: 12 },
18//     { insert: 'White', attributes: { color: '#fff' } },
19//     { delete: 4 }
20//   ]
21// }
22
23// Applying the above:
24const restored = delta.compose(death);
25// {
26//   ops: [
27//     { insert: 'Gandalf', attributes: { bold: true } },
28//     { insert: ' the ' },
29//     { insert: 'White', attributes: { color: '#fff' } }
30//   ]
31// }
32

This README describes Deltas in its general form and API functionality. Additional information on the way Quill specifically uses Deltas can be found on its own Delta docs. A walkthough of the motivation and design thinking behind Deltas are on Designing the Delta Format.

This format is suitable for Operational Transform and defines several functions to support this use case.

Contents

Operations

• insert
• delete
• retain

Construction

• constructor
• insert
• delete
• retain

Documents

These methods called on or with non-document Deltas will result in undefined behavior.

• concat
• diff
• eachLine
• invert

Utility

• filter
• forEach
• length
• map
• partition
• reduce
• slice

Operational Transform

• compose
• transform
• transformPosition

Operations

Insert Operation

Insert operations have an insert key defined. A String value represents inserting text. Any other type represents inserting an embed (however only one level of object comparison will be performed for equality).

In both cases of text and embeds, an optional attributes key can be defined with an Object to describe additonal formatting information. Formats can be changed by the retain operation.

1// Insert a bolded "Text"
2{ insert: "Text", attributes: { bold: true } }
3
4// Insert a link
5{ insert: "Google", attributes: { link: 'https://www.google.com' } }
6
7// Insert an embed
8{
9  insert: { image: 'https://octodex.github.com/images/labtocat.png' },
10  attributes: { alt: "Lab Octocat" }
11}
12
13// Insert another embed
14{
15  insert: { video: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg' },
16  attributes: {
17    width: 420,
18    height: 315
19  }
20}

Delete Operation

Delete operations have a Number delete key defined representing the number of characters to delete. All embeds have a length of 1.

1// Delete the next 10 characters
2{ delete: 10 }

Retain Operation

Retain operations have a Number retain key defined representing the number of characters to keep (other libraries might use the name keep or skip). An optional attributes key can be defined with an Object to describe formatting changes to the character range. A value of null in the attributes Object represents removal of that key.

Note: It is not necessary to retain the last characters of a document as this is implied.

1// Keep the next 5 characters
2{ retain: 5 }
3
4// Keep and bold the next 5 characters
5{ retain: 5, attributes: { bold: true } }
6
7// Keep and unbold the next 5 characters
8// More specifically, remove the bold key in the attributes Object
9// in the next 5 characters
10{ retain: 5, attributes: { bold: null } }

Construction

constructor

Creates a new Delta object.

Methods

• new Delta()
• new Delta(ops)
• new Delta(delta)

Parameters

• ops - Array of operations
• delta - Object with an ops key set to an array of operations

Note: No validity/sanity check is performed when constructed with ops or delta. The new delta's internal ops array will also be assigned from ops or delta.ops without deep copying.

Example

1const delta = new Delta([
2  { insert: 'Hello World' },
3  { insert: '!', attributes: { bold: true }}
4]);
5
6const packet = JSON.stringify(delta);
7
8const other = new Delta(JSON.parse(packet));
9
10const chained = new Delta().insert('Hello World').insert('!', { bold: true });

---

insert()

Appends an insert operation. Returns this for chainability.

Methods

• insert(text, attributes)
• insert(embed, attributes)

Parameters

• text - String representing text to insert
• embed - Object representing embed type to insert
• attributes - Optional attributes to apply

Example

1delta.insert('Text', { bold: true, color: '#ccc' });
2delta.insert({ image: 'https://octodex.github.com/images/labtocat.png' });

---

delete()

Appends a delete operation. Returns this for chainability.

Methods

• delete(length)

Parameters

• length - Number of characters to delete

Example

1delta.delete(5);

---

retain()

Appends a retain operation. Returns this for chainability.

Methods

• retain(length, attributes)

Parameters

• length - Number of characters to retain
• attributes - Optional attributes to apply

Example

1delta.retain(4).retain(5, { color: '#0c6' });

Documents

concat()

Returns a new Delta representing the concatenation of this and another document Delta's operations.

Methods

• concat(other)

Parameters

• other - Document Delta to concatenate

Returns

• Delta - Concatenated document Delta

Example

1const a = new Delta().insert('Hello');
2const b = new Delta().insert('!', { bold: true });
3
4
5// {
6//   ops: [
7//     { insert: 'Hello' },
8//     { insert: '!', attributes: { bold: true } }
9//   ]
10// }
11const concat = a.concat(b);

---

diff()

Returns a Delta representing the difference between two documents. Optionally, accepts a suggested index where change took place, often representing a cursor position before change.

Methods

• diff(other)
• diff(other, index)

Parameters

• other - Document Delta to diff against
• index - Suggested index where change took place

Returns

• Delta - difference between the two documents

Example

1const a = new Delta().insert('Hello');
2const b = new Delta().insert('Hello!');
3
4const diff = a.diff(b);  // { ops: [{ retain: 5 }, { insert: '!' }] }
5                         // a.compose(diff) == b
6

---

eachLine()

Iterates through document Delta, calling a given function with a Delta and attributes object, representing the line segment.

Methods

• eachLine(predicate, newline)

Parameters

• predicate - function to call on each line group
• newline - newline character, defaults to \n

Example

1const delta = new Delta().insert('Hello\n\n')
2                         .insert('World')
3                         .insert({ image: 'octocat.png' })
4                         .insert('\n', { align: 'right' })
5                         .insert('!');
6
7delta.eachLine((line, attributes, i) => {
8  console.log(line, attributes, i);
9  // Can return false to exit loop early
10});
11// Should log:
12// { ops: [{ insert: 'Hello' }] }, {}, 0
13// { ops: [] }, {}, 1
14// { ops: [{ insert: 'World' }, { insert: { image: 'octocat.png' } }] }, { align: 'right' }, 2
15// { ops: [{ insert: '!' }] }, {}, 3

---

invert()

Returned an inverted delta that has the opposite effect of against a base document delta. That is base.compose(delta).compose(inverted) === base.

Methods

• invert(base)

Parameters

• base - Document delta to invert against

Returns

• Delta - inverted delta against the base delta

Example

1const base = new Delta().insert('Hello\n')
2                        .insert('World');
3const delta = new Delta().retain(6, { bold: true }).insert('!').delete(5);
4
5const inverted = delta.invert(base);  // { ops: [
6                                      //   { retain: 6, attributes: { bold: null } },
7                                      //   { insert: 'World' },
8                                      //   { delete: 1 }
9                                      // ]}
10                                      // base.compose(delta).compose(inverted) === base

Utility

filter()

Returns an array of operations that passes a given function.

Methods

• filter(predicate)

Parameters

• predicate - Function to test each operation against. Return true to keep the operation, false otherwise.

Returns

• Array - Filtered resulting array

Example

1const delta = new Delta().insert('Hello', { bold: true })
2                         .insert({ image: 'https://octodex.github.com/images/labtocat.png' })
3                         .insert('World!');
4
5const text = delta
6  .filter((op) => typeof op.insert === 'string')
7  .map((op) => op.insert)
8  .join('');

---

forEach()

Iterates through operations, calling the provided function for each operation.

Methods

• forEach(predicate)

Parameters

• predicate - Function to call during iteration, passing in the current operation.

Example

1delta.forEach((op) => {
2  console.log(op);
3});

---

length()

Returns length of a Delta, which is the sum of the lengths of its operations.

Methods

• length()

Example

1new Delta().insert('Hello').length();  // Returns 5
2
3new Delta().insert('A').retain(2).delete(1).length(); // Returns 4

---

map()

Returns a new array with the results of calling provided function on each operation.

Methods

• map(predicate)

Parameters

• predicate - Function to call, passing in the current operation, returning an element of the new array to be returned

Returns

• Array - A new array with each element being the result of the given function.

Example

1const delta = new Delta().insert('Hello', { bold: true })
2                         .insert({ image: 'https://octodex.github.com/images/labtocat.png' })
3                         .insert('World!');
4
5const text = delta
6  .map((op) => {
7    if (typeof op.insert === 'string') {
8      return op.insert;
9    } else {
10      return '';
11    }
12  })
13  .join('');

---

partition()

Create an array of two arrays, the first with operations that pass the given function, the other that failed.

Methods

• partition(predicate)

Parameters

• predicate - Function to call, passing in the current operation, returning whether that operation passed

Returns

• Array - A new array of two Arrays, the first with passed operations, the other with failed operations

Example

1const delta = new Delta().insert('Hello', { bold: true })
2                         .insert({ image: 'https://octodex.github.com/images/labtocat.png' })
3                         .insert('World!');
4
5const results = delta.partition((op) => typeof op.insert === 'string');
6const passed = results[0];  // [{ insert: 'Hello', attributes: { bold: true }},
7                            //  { insert: 'World'}]
8const failed = results[1];  // [{ insert: { image: 'https://octodex.github.com/images/labtocat.png' }}]

---

reduce()

Applies given function against an accumulator and each operation to reduce to a single value.

Methods

• reduce(predicate, initialValue)

Parameters

• predicate - Function to call per iteration, returning an accumulated value
• initialValue - Initial value to pass to first call to predicate

Returns

• any - the accumulated value

Example

1const delta = new Delta().insert('Hello', { bold: true })
2                         .insert({ image: 'https://octodex.github.com/images/labtocat.png' })
3                         .insert('World!');
4
5const length = delta.reduce((length, op) => (
6  length + (op.insert.length || 1);
7), 0);

---

slice()

Returns copy of delta with subset of operations.

Methods

• slice()
• slice(start)
• slice(start, end)

Parameters

• start - Start index of subset, defaults to 0
• end - End index of subset, defaults to rest of operations

Example

1const delta = new Delta().insert('Hello', { bold: true }).insert(' World');
2
3// {
4//   ops: [
5//     { insert: 'Hello', attributes: { bold: true } },
6//     { insert: ' World' }
7//   ]
8// }
9const copy = delta.slice();
10
11// { ops: [{ insert: 'World' }] }
12const world = delta.slice(6);
13
14// { ops: [{ insert: ' ' }] }
15const space = delta.slice(5, 6);

Operational Transform

compose()

Returns a Delta that is equivalent to applying the operations of own Delta, followed by another Delta.

Methods

• compose(other)

Parameters

• other - Delta to compose

Example

1const a = new Delta().insert('abc');
2const b = new Delta().retain(1).delete(1);
3
4const composed = a.compose(b);  // composed == new Delta().insert('ac');
5

---

transform()

Transform given Delta against own operations.

Methods

• transform(other, priority = false)
• transform(index, priority = false) - Alias for transformPosition

Parameters

• other - Delta to transform
• priority - Boolean used to break ties. If true, then this takes priority over other, that is, its actions are considered to happen "first."

Returns

• Delta - transformed Delta

Example

1const a = new Delta().insert('a');
2const b = new Delta().insert('b').retain(5).insert('c');
3
4a.transform(b, true);  // new Delta().retain(1).insert('b').retain(5).insert('c');
5a.transform(b, false); // new Delta().insert('b').retain(6).insert('c');

---

transformPosition()

Transform an index against the delta. Useful for representing cursor/selection positions.

Methods

• transformPosition(index, priority = false)

Parameters

• index - index to transform

Returns

• Number - transformed index

Example

1const delta = new Delta().retain(5).insert('a');
2delta.transformPosition(4); // 4
3delta.transformPosition(5); // 6