What is the process for establishing a reference to a property of an object in JavaScript?

Imagine you have an object structured like this:

obj = {a:{aa:1}, b:2};

You decide to create a convenient variable (referred to as a pointer) named x that points to obj.a.aa with the following code:

x = obj.a.aa;

Next, your goal is to update the value of obj.a.aa to 3 using the x variable like so:

x = 3;  // This should change obj.a.aa to 3
console.log(obj.a.aa); // Currently shows 1 (I want it to show 3)

Your question arises - how can you configure x so that assigning a value to it will reflect in obj.a.aa?

Although obj.a.aa is considered a primitive value, the challenge lies in properly setting up a variable that references it for seamless property assignment.

javascript

Answer №1

Avoid using x = value because it won't retain any references, only a copy. To preserve references, you must reference the parent branch:

x = obj.a;

Then assign the desired value:

x.aa = 3;

Answer №2

Alternatively, you can employ a function:

var update_x = function(value){
  obj.a.aa = value;
}

Answer №3

It's impossible to do that - you're not attempting to edit the reference which is the name of the object property, but rather you're trying to make changes to the object itself. In order to make modifications to the object, you'll require a direct reference to the object.

Having said that, there might be an innovative approach to achieve this. Develop a function that accepts the object as an argument and includes a custom = setter or method within the function in order to alter the reference of the object. A technique similar to this could potentially work.

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