JS use a single string as key for multidimensional array

Question

Let's say I have this variable:

var myvar = {
    welcome: "Welcome!",
    thx: "Thank you!",
    ...
}

Then, I have a function, which gets sent a string and return the value from that variable:

function myFunction(key){
    return myvar[key]
}

So this happens:

console.log(myFunction('welcome')) ///prints Welcome!

That's all great, and works beautifully, but what if then I wanna add something like months to the original variable, and I want something like this

var myvar={
    .
    .
    months: [
        ["jan", "January"],
        ..
}

So if I wanna call for example, January, I'd do

myvar[months][0][1] //Select the months part, 0 means it's january, 1 means its fully written not just "jan"

I could, for example, in my key do something like months-0-1 and split it to get all 3 keys; but how could I adapt my original function to work for both the original content (welcome, thx) and for the months?

Second part to this question, should I even do it or would it be a not very optimal solution, should I just go with the whole adding each entry into the variable like before method? Note: I still want the answer to my first question, if nothing else because I want to know how it could be done, even if I don't end up doing it.

A bit more information of the use case, I have a data-translate tag on some objects in my html, and some that are generated dynamically, these variables are for language translation, and they all call that function either when they are made or when the language changes. (data-translate="welcome") for example

Welcome @SDDave to StackOverflow! Haven't you thought about use more functions in one? Have you particular constraint on what you need to develop? — xKobalt
– xKobalt, Commented Aug 25, 2020 at 10:58
Thank you! I don't mind using more functions; the constraint is that I want as little code as possible while being able to use it in every page because I am importing this script into every(well, most) page. I am calling the translateText function every time a new translatable element is generated. I am also calling a translateAll function every time the user switches language (all it does is loop through all translatables and call translateText). The variables are their own self isolated file for ease of editing, so I don't want to create multiples per language unless I have to. — SDDave
– SDDave, Commented Aug 25, 2020 at 11:04

Karan · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-25 11:05:08Z

3

You can update your function code to be like below and pass keys as - separated values as you have mentioned. Refer this article Array.prototype.reduce() if you are not familiar with it.

return key.split('-').reduce((a, i) => a[i], myvar);

Try it below.

var myvar = {
  welcome: "Welcome!",
  thx: "Thank you!",
  months: [
    ["jan", "January"]
  ]
};

function myFunction(key) {
  return key.split('-').reduce((a, i) => a[i], myvar);
}

console.log(myFunction('welcome')); // prints Welcome!
console.log(myFunction('months-0-1')); // prints January!

answered Aug 25, 2020 at 11:05

Karan

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Comments

namar sood · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-25 11:12:58Z

0

We can do something like this

var myvar = {
    welcome: "Welcome!",
    thx: "Thank you!",
    months: [
        ["jan", "January"]]
};


function myFunction(key){
    let keys = key.split("-");
    let len = keys.length;
    let result = myvar, i=0;
    while(i < len)
        result = result[keys[i++]];
 
    return result;
};

console.log(myFunction("welcome"), myFunction("months-0-0"))

answered Aug 25, 2020 at 11:12

namar sood

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