I have the following object
var obj = {};
obj.foo = {};
obj.foo.bar = "I want this";
given the "path" "foo.bar" as a string, how do I retrieve obj.foo.bar (or obj[foo][bar])?
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Thorben Croisé
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`obj[foo][bar]` is this what you want?.So this will work for you – Deepak Ingole Sep 19 '13 at 10:16
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yes, I add that to the question – Thorben Croisé Sep 19 '13 at 10:17
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you retrieve the `bar` property the same way you initialized it and assigned a string value to it: `var myString = obj.foo.bar;` – tikider Sep 19 '13 at 10:19
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http://stackoverflow.com/q/10934664/989121 – georg Sep 19 '13 at 10:50
3 Answers
17
Here's a way:
function getKey(key, obj) {
return key.split('.').reduce(function(a,b){
return a && a[b];
}, obj);
}
getKey('foo.bar', obj); //=> "I want this"
elclanrs
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1Nice idea! Just one thing: If one property in the "path" is undefined this will throw a TypeError. I suggest you improve this by changing `return a[b]` to `return a && a[b]`. This way in that situation getKey returns `undefined`, which feels better – Thorben Croisé Sep 19 '13 at 10:29
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@Tobo: Try it with a non-existent key, it should just return `undefined` as-is. – elclanrs Sep 19 '13 at 10:31
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Oh I see if you input two in a row that are non-existent it will throw an error. Edited. – elclanrs Sep 19 '13 at 10:34
0
if path = "foo.bar" then you may write
var keys = path.split('.');
console.log(obj[keys[0]][keys[1]]);
Fabrizio Calderan
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just use the obj.foo.bar..that will work;
Clover Wu
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1Thats not what he's asking. He's asking how to access the object property with the string "foo.bar". – CharliePrynn Sep 19 '13 at 10:49