How come I am encountering a syntax error when trying to access an object item by its index?

I'm curious as to why this particular scenario is occurring:

var obj = { 0:"bla", 1:"blabla" }

For some reason, when I try to access obj.0, an error is returned and I can only use obj[0]. Why is that the case?

Answer №1

An acceptable naming identifier cannot begin with a number. It's a simple rule to follow. To access properties, you must use the dot notation if the keys are valid identifiers. Otherwise, you need to utilize square bracket notation like this: object['0']

object[0] is the same as object['0'] because property keys must be strings (any string can act as a key), so the value inside the brackets is automatically converted to a string.

Answer №2

Your code is encountering a SyntaxError because of a missing " after bla:

var obj = { 0:"bla", 1:"blabla" }

The reason why obj.0 results in a SyntaxError is because JavaScript recognizes property accesses using the syntax:

<identifier>.<identifier>

In JavaScript, identifiers cannot start with numbers. This is why trying to declare var 1a = 1; will lead to a SyntaxError due to an unexpected number.

Instead, by using obj[0], JavaScript interprets 0 as a string and accesses properties based on keys (which are strings) in associative arrays like this:

obj["constructor"]

For more information on identifier syntax in JavaScript, refer to section 7.6 of the ECMAScript Language Specification.

The excerpt below outlines the syntax for identifiers (extracted from the provided link):

IdentifierName ::
    IdentifierStart
    IdentifierName IdentifierPart

IdentifierStart ::
    UnicodeLetter
    $
    _
    \ UnicodeEscapeSequence

Answer №3

 let object = { 0:'hello', 1:'world' } //incorrect

The string 'hello' is not enclosed in double quotes properly, so the right way to do it is:

 let object = { 0:"hello", 1:"world" } //correct

Answer №4

Give this a shot:

set up

let data = { "0":"hello", "1":"world" };

retrieve

alert(data[0]);
alert(data[1]);

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