# GenericUnit

**GenericUnit** is a type of [Unit](https://docs.activejs.dev/activejs/fundamentals/units) that doesn't pertain to any specific data type, it's generic, as the name suggests. You can use it to store any serializable value data type that other Units accept. i.e.: `boolean`, `number`, `string`, simple `object` and `array`.

The advantage of using **GenericUnit** over other **Units** is that you can store and `dispatch` any type of value and the disadvantage is that you lose the specialized methods and features built into other Units for a specific data structure, for example, we can store an `array` value in a **GenericUnit**, but we cannot use methods like `push` or `set` to add items to the value without a manual `dispatch`. Also, we lose the assurance that the value would always be of a specific data type, i.e.: an `array` in case of **ListUnit**.

GenericUnit implements non-proto [Object.prototype](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Object) methods like `toString`
 to make working with the stored value a bit easier, when you call these methods they are called on the stored value instead of GenericUnit instance.

It also borrows some static methods from [Object](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Object) like `values` and `entries`, and implements them as instance members `objectValues` and `objectEntries`, respectively.  These methods do not throw an error on `undefined` or `null` value, they would simply return an empty array instead.

See [API reference](https://api.activejs.dev/classes/genericunit) for more details.

|                      |                                                               |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Default value        | `undefined`                                                   |
| Supported data types | `boolean`, `number`, `string`, serializable `object`, `array` |

```typescript
// initialization
const unit = new GenericUnit({initialValue: ['🐠']}); // value is ['🐠']

typeof unit === 'object' // true
unit instanceof Array // false
unit.value() instanceof Array // true

// adding an item to the stored array value
unit.dispatch(arrValue => [...arrValue, '🐞'])
// this is inefficient compared to ListUnit.push, but it works

// dispatching a different type of value
unit.dispatch('not an array') // works

// dispatching a different type of value
unit.dispatch(true) // works
```