Accessing an object inside another object

Question

Hi I am getting an uncaught reference exception on my code.This is what I have:

 var config = {
    debug: true,
    data: {
        debug: false,
        logErrorsOnServer: true,
        defaultCulture: '',
        serviceUrl: ''
    },

    init: function(options) {
        if (!options) {
            return;
        }          
        if (options.hasOwnProperty('debug')) {
            data.debug = options.debug;
        }

    },
};

When I try to get the value of data.debug I get an uncaught reference error that says:

UncoughtReference Error: data is not defined

Whay can't I acces my data object?

What is going wrong. At a first glance everything okay in Chrome devtools — Thomas Junk
– Thomas Junk, Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 11:00
data.debug = options.debug throws UncoughtReference Error: data is not defined — aleczandru
– aleczandru, Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 11:00
I don't get it. You have config.debug, data.debug and options.hasOwnProperty('debug'). In my view, that's two to many. — Lennart
– Lennart, Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 11:03
Well, you have no variable data as far as I can see. If you want to to access the data property of the config object, you have to use config.data or this.data, assuming you call the function with config.init(). JavaScript doesn't have any hidden magic like Java where this. is implicit (and that's a good thing). It does exactly what you tell it to do (most of the time). — Felix Kling
– Felix Kling, Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 11:05

nnnnnn · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-19 11:05:55Z

1

You need to say:

this.data.debug = options.debug;

...assuming that you are calling the init() function in a way that sets this to the (outer) object, e.g., with config.init().

Or you can say:

config.data.debug = options.debug;

The reason you got an error about data not being defined when you tried to use data.debug directly is that in fact data is not defined as a variable, it is a property of the object. Just because init() is a method on your object doesn't mean it automatically references other object properties.

answered Jun 19, 2013 at 11:05

nnnnnn

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:29:13Z

0

Well, the data variable is undefined. You probably want to use the object on your .data property of config (accessible via the this keyword):

…
    if (options.hasOwnProperty('debug')) {
        this.data.debug = options.debug;
    }
…

See also Javascript: Object Literal reference in own key's function instead of 'this' for different methods to access .data.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:29

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Jun 19, 2013 at 11:05

Bergi

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