Is it possible to obtain a reference/pointer to an object property in JavaScript?

Question

Specifically, I want to create an HTML <input> element, and obtain a reference to its value property such that I can change its value through that reference:

var input = document.createElement('input');
var valueRef = &(input.value);
*valueRef = "Hello world!"

The syntax is obviously pseudo, I'm adding some C++ to illustrate my desire. :P

Saxoier · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-23 03:33:52Z

2

No, this is impossible. Primitives will always be passed by value while objects always passed by reference. There is nothing like * or &.

answered Jun 23, 2011 at 3:33

Saxoier

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2 Comments

nnnnnn Over a year ago

Note: objects are passed by reference in that the function can modify (or even remove) properties of the object, but really it's by value in that the "value" is a copy of a reference to a specific object - if, inside the function, you try to change the reference to point to a different object the variable outside the function will continue to point to the original object. (OK, I know I got myself in a bit of a tangle trying to explain that in a comment where I couldn't give an effective code example.)

RobG Over a year ago

Strictly, all variables are "passed by value", where the value can be a primitive or a reference to an object.

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