Referencing objects in Javascript

Question

When you have a multi-tiered object like a json object that say has 3 tiers

i = {'id':1{'name':'austin', 'lives':'college'{'name':'eckerd', 'major':'compsci'}}}

To reference the object is it better to reference it like so

for (x in i)
    i[x]['lives']['name']
//or
    i[x].lives.name

I think that gets my idea across. Pretty much use Associative arrays or the 'dot' method and why?

awm · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-22 01:44:22Z

3

i[x].lives.name is equivalent to i[x]["lives"]["name"].

i[x][lives][name] means that you have variables called lives and name that you want to reference:

There's no real benefit to using one form over the other; imho it's clearest to use the dot notation unless you need the variable property names.

answered Apr 22, 2011 at 1:44

awm

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4 Comments

austinbv Over a year ago

err sorry those are supposed to be in quotes in the question

BraedenP Over a year ago

It's really just whatever you prefer. The two syntactical representations refer to the exact same objects in the exact same way. The method you choose will have no effect on your code besides the way it looks. Personally I use the . syntax to separate standard "objects" from what I consider to be "arrays" although to JS they are exactly the same thing.

awm Over a year ago

@austinbv Looks good. Guess it's only the last line of this answer that's relevant then. :)

David Titarenco Over a year ago

I'm tempted to downvote this as JSON keys (which are strings) should only be accessed accordingly as strings, not object parameters.

user1354017 · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-11 17:02:24Z

0

"Values can be retrieved from an object by wrapping a string expression in a [ ] suffix. If the string expression is a string literal, and if it is a legal JavaScript name and not a reserved word, then the . notation can be used instead. The . notation is preferred because it is more compact and reads better."

Crockford, D. (2008), JavaScript: The Good Parts. (pp. 21). Sebastopol, CA, U.S.A.: O'Reilly.

answered Dec 11, 2012 at 17:02

user1354017

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