Testing nested objects as undefined in Javascript [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
javascript test for existence of nested object key

I'm attempting to construct an error message for a formset by testing if a certain object is not undefined, and if it's not undefined, then I end up populating it with that error message. The main problem is that I have to validate if each nested object is undefined, which results in some pretty ugly code. Here's the example:

errorsForField: function(fieldName, formsetName, formNumber) {
            if (typeof this.model.errors != 'undefined'){

                var fieldError = document.createElement('span');
                $(fieldError).addClass('field-error');

                // THE FOLLOWING LINE THROWS ERROR.
                if (formsetName && _.isUndefined(this.model.errors[formsetName][fieldName]) != true) {
                    $(fieldError).text(this.model.errors[formsetname][fieldName]);
                } else if (typeof this.model.errors[fieldName] != "undefined"){
                    $(fieldError).text(this.model.errors[fieldName]);
                }

                this.errors[fieldName] = fieldError.outerHTML;
                return fieldError.outerHTML; 
            }
            return false; 
        },

I get an error stating that I cannot determine [fieldName] of an undefined object this.model.errors[formsetName]. In other words, I have to first determine if this.model.errors[formsetName] is empty and then test if [fieldname] is undefined.

This seems like a really cumbersome solution. Any suggestions for changing this?

Answer 1

You can create a library function that takes property names as parameters and returns the final value if it exists, or null:

function TryGetPropertyValue(o, propertyName1 /*, ... propertyNameN */) {
    var names = [].slice.call(arguments, 1);
    while (o && names.length) {
        o = o[names.shift()];
    }
    return names.length ? null : o;
}

Call it like:

var err = TryGetPropertyValue(this.model.errors, formsetName, fieldName) ||
          TryGetPropertyValue(this.model.errors, fieldName);
if (err != null) {
    $(fieldError).text(err);
}

If you want it to return undefined instead of null if the field is not found, you can change the function slightly:

function TryGetPropertyValue(o, propertyName1 /*, ... propertyNameN */) {
    var names = [].slice.call(arguments, 1);
    while (o && names.length) {
        o = o[names.shift()];
    }
    if (names.length == 0) {
        return o;
    }
}

http://jsfiddle.net/HbggQ/