title: What's the difference between objects and associated array in javascript?
body: <h2>The Confusing discussion</h2>
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8145797/how-do-i-put-an-objectassociatvie-array-in-an-objectassociatve-array/8145831#comment9998076_8145831">In this question</a>, there is a discussion on the concepts of associated array and object in javaScript which I got a bit confused.</p>
  <p>In this example code:</p>
  <pre><code>var check = {
    pattern : {
      name: /^[a-zA-Z-\s]{1,20}$/,
      email: /^[a-zA-Z0-9._(-)]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.(-)]+\.[a-zA-Z]{1,4}$/,
      pass: /.{6,40}/,
      url:  /^[(-)\w&amp;:\/\.=\?,#+]{1,}$/,
      aml:  /&lt;(.+)_([a-z]){1}&gt;$/
      }
  };
  </code></pre>
  <p>Here is the discussion makes me confused:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>@steven.yang the outer object is not an associative array in your sample, but that is what is being asked for</p>
  <p>@sissonb what do you mean by 'outer object is not an associative array'? I think associated array is expressed as object in javascript. The difference is in the notation - either through <code>foo.bar</code> or <code>foo[bar]</code></p>
  <p>@steven.yang associated array means key =&gt; value. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associative_array" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associative_array</a> Your inner object has a key of pattern, the object containing this associative array has no key.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <h2>My Understanding of Associated Array and Objects in JS</h2>
  <p>Associated array is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associative_array" rel="nofollow noreferrer">defined as</a> key-value pairs which is expressed as the <code>object</code> in JavaScript.</p>
  <p>The outer object assigned to <code>check</code> has a key <code>pattern</code> and an value of another object. The inner object has keys of <code>name</code>, <code>email</code> ... and corresponding values of regular expression objects.</p>
  <p>Could both objects be counted as associative arrays?</p>