JS: Prevent Error if Accessing Attributes of Undefined Object

Question

My goal: Test if the attribute of an object is/returns true. However, in some cases, the object is undefined.

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This works no problem. The script continues normally.

if(somethingUndefined){ }

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However, if I try to access an attribute of an undefined object, this generates an error and stops the script.

if(somethingUndefined.anAttribute){ }

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Right now, this is what I'm using to solve the problem:

if(somethingUndefined && somethingUndefined.anAttribute){ }

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Is there another way to do that? Maybe a global settings that will return false if the program tries to access an attribute of an undefined object?

Answer 1

If you have many if statement like if(somethingUndefined && somethingUndefined.anAttribute){ }, then you could assign an empty object to it when it is undefined.

var somethingUndefined = somethingUndefined || {};

if (somethingUndefined.anAttribute) {

}