Having trouble with assigning scope to variable to manipulate - javascript

Attempting to assign a scope object to a JavaScript variable to do minor manipulation before sending to my API. However, any changes made to the JavaScript variable change the scope object.
var recruitingCallListOutput = $scope.RecrutingCallingList.Recruit;
// manipulation of recruitingCallListOutput
The manipulation actually still updates the scope object which is not desired. Feel I am not understanding something in AngularJS correctly. Is there a way to grab the data and detach it from the scope?

In your example, recruitingCallListOutput is a reference to $scope.RecrutingCallingList.Recruit (see https://codeburst.io/explaining-value-vs-reference-in-javascript-647a975e12a0 for more detail.) You will want to make a copy of $scope.RecrutingCallingList.Recruit.
If Recruit is a shallow object, meaning no nested objects (property values are primitives only), you can simply do
var recruitingCallListOutput = Object.assign({}, $scope.RecrutingCallingList.Recruit);
If you have nested objects/arrays as property values, you'll need to deep copy. It's been a while since I have been in the angular world, but
var recruitingCallListOutput = angular.copy($scope.RecrutingCallingList.Recruit)
you could actually use angular.copy in both examples.

This is nothing to do with AngularJS. It's Javascript, and it's expected behaviour.
For example, if you open the browser console (F12->Console) right now and run this:
var foo = {x:1};
var copy=foo;
copy.x=2;
console.log(foo.x);
you will see {x:2} printed out.
This is the same behaviour you would expected for any object reference in Javascript, C#, Java, etc. Because you are making a reference and not a copy, any changes to the reference are actually changes to the original.
The simplest way to solve this problem in your case is to copy the values you are interested in from the item in question into a totally separate object and modify that copy.
e.g.
var recruitingCallListOutput = {
name: $scope.RecrutingCallingList.Recruit.name,
age:$scope.RecrutingCallingList.Recruit.age,
modifiedSomething: $scope.RecrutingCallingList.Recruit.something + 42 //or whatever modifications you need to make
...and so on.
};
There are ways to "clone" an object in Javascript but unless your object is really really complex I would be careful. And consider if you really need all of the properties of the original object anyway, perhaps you only need to send some of them to your backend.

Related

Javascript changes value of three objects at once

This is my code and I am trying to change value of object in packs object. But when I type it, Javascript somehow changes all three different objects, that have nothing in common. And this is the only line that changes packs, rest should stay the same, but it's all changing with this line. How?
console.log(packs[usedPack].levels[level].bestBy) //null
console.log(defaultPack.levels[level].bestBy) //null
console.log(mainPacks[usedPack].levels[level].bestBy) //null
packs[usedPack].levels[level].bestBy = nameTyped; //this changes values in three different objects
//packs[usedPack].levels[level] = nameTyped; //if I type like this, this does change only original object, rest stays the same
console.log(packs) //nameTyped
console.log(defaultPack) //nameTyped
console.log(mainPacks) //nameTyped
Edit: It was indeed problem with referencing. I was using constructor function and this function needed to deep copy complex objects. I was checking values and I used multiple loops to copy all values from objects, but it didn't work properly. I've changed all of this to JSON.parse(JSON.stringify()), and it's working now. Thanks for help.
The issue here seems like you're assigning some object by its reference.
In javascript, if you have two objects and you assign them like
a = b;
Now whenever you will change b, a will also be changed. To avoid this we do deep clone using the spread operator
// this now does not reference to b but clones it
a = {...b}
In your code, you might be assigning some objects like this. a=b
Maybe you're assigning packs, defaultPack, and mainPacks using some same object.
Updated
#David pointed out one thing and that is if you are having some complex structure (like objects within object) and then you clone it using spread operator, the inner objects will still reference the same object.
To resolve this, for easiness you can use lodash deepclone function
const clonedeep = require('lodash/clonedeep');
const deepClonedObject = clonedeep(originalObject);
This will deep clone and even if the objects are nested they won't refer to the same object.

How to duplicate object in JS where duplicate changes if you change original

I am making a planner/calendar website that is going to have a repeat function.
var chain = _.chain(state.items).filter({'id': 1}).head().value();
console.log(chain);
Here i filter one object, how do i duplicate chain that when i change the original the duplicate also changes and the other way around?
Variables that are assigned a non-primitive value are given a reference to that value. That reference points to the object’s location in memory. The variables don’t actually contain the value. This is why the original value changing when you're changing the duplicate.
This can be solved by using JSON.parse() and JSON.stringify()
Create a new function in the methods section
cloneObject:function(obj){
return JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj));
}
Now you can call this method to make a copy of any object, like
var items = this.cloneObject(state.items); // this will create a clone of the object
var chain = _.chain(items).filter({'id': 1}).head().value();
Here the filter won't effect the state.items since we made a clone of this data.
If you're already using lodash JS library, you can use the cloneDeep() method to make the copy
Eg:
var items = _.cloneDeep(state.items);
var chain = _.chain(items).filter({'id': 1}).head().value();
console.log(chain);

Creating a struct of arrays in Javascript

I have a variable called jsonAllSignOffs that is created by a .NET JSON service and sent to the client. It is essentially a struct containing various arrays. The values of these arrays are arranged such that if you took the nth element of each array, all together that would be the collected properties of the nth Sign Off. Obviously a list of Sign Off objects containing these properties would be better, but unfortunately this is a legacy application and changing it's architecture in this manner is out of scope.
What I'm trying to do is create a variable called jsonUserSignOffs that is essentially a subset of jsonAllSignOffs with all the same properties. However jsonAllSignOffs is not a type that I can instantiate. I figured declaring a variable and assuming the properties by assigning into them would "build" the object, but apparently that's not the case.
var jsonUserSignOffs;
jsonUserSignOffs.isAuthor = jsonAllSignOffs.isAuthor; //error jsonUserSignOffs is undefined
Since javascript doesn't support classes and is pretty lax with variables I figured the only way to create a struct like jsonAllSignOffs was to declare the variable and assign values to it's properties. I know these properties are not defined anywhere, but I thought assigning values to them would instantiate them at the same time. I come from a C# background where I would use a class. Javascript is less familiar to me, and I'm unclear on how to proceed.
Try this
var jsonUserSignOffs = {}; //creates an empty object using object literal notation
jsonUserSignOffs.isAuthor = jsonAllSignOffs.isAuthor;
OR:
var jsonUserSignOffs = {
isAuthor: jsonAllSignOffs.isAuthor
};

Clone of an object inherits future changes that are made to first object

Lets say you have this object:
mainObj = {
foo1: 'bar1',
foo2: 'bar2',
foo3: 'bar3'
}
Now I want to make a close of this object by doing cloneObj = mainOb. Now we have two identical objects.
When I change the value of mainObj.foo1 = 'lolcats' after I made the clone then for some reason cloneObj.foo1 = 'lolcats'
I tested this in Chrome's console on a much more complex object. I know for certain that there's nothing in my script that would keep making the two objects sync up. I even made sure of this by creating random names for the cloneObj.
Is this behavior done on purpose or am I experiencing some sort of bug? Or am I just missing something very fundamental here?
You didn't clone the initial object when you just did cloneObj = mainOb, you are actually passing a reference to mainOb that can be accessed via the cloneObj variable name. You therefore have two variable names referencing the SAME object.
when you assign/clone object such as cloneObj = mainOb you just create another reference to the same object. Both mainOb and cloneOb points to the same object thus, a change in one is reflected on another.

What is a reverse reference to the DOM object?

In this link: http://css-tricks.com/snippets/jquery/jquery-plugin-template/ it has a line of code that says
// Add a reverse reference to the DOM object
base.$el.data("yourPluginName", base);
what does the "reverse reference to the DOM object" mean?
Assuming that you know the jQuery data function:
It's storing a reference to the instance of the class in the data cache of jQuery, meaning that the stored instance can be used to access the initial base object if it in the current context is not available.
This way, the class instance can be used later. However, the use of the prototype keyword upon the initial class that the instance were created from will modify the instance.
EDIT:
Ooops, it seems that Anurag is right, and I was giving wrong information.
Sorry, the information I gave in initial answer was not completely correct. I've updated the answer, so it now tells the truth.
In the comments you're asking:
so you mean its storing the current state of "base" in the data cache but if we make changes to "base" later on then the one in the data wont be affected? so if for some reason we needed to get the original one again we can do data('yourPluginName') to retrieve it? can you give me an example of when this would be helpful?
It seems that none of the statements are correct.
As I did obviously not remember adequately, the thing stored in data is only a reference to the object:
var obj = {};
obj.hello = "Hello";
$("#someElement").data("object", obj);
obj.world = " world.";
alert(
obj.hello +
$("#someElement").data("object").world
); // alerts "Hello world."
BTW, JavaScript variables with names like this base-thing (but, more often seen as that or similar) are typically used to represent the current context, accessed through the this keyword, which on many occasions is more easy to store in another variable due to scoping/context changes, that will make the current context and therefore this, change.
Also due to issues with context, the stored value in data could be used to access the specific object instance from another context (that is, when this represents something else), instead of the version of the base object that was continually used after a copy of it was stored.
I hope this answered you questions :D
The technique and the problem it solves is general and not specific to jQuery plugins. There may be cases where a Javascript object corresponds to a DOM element, and wraps logic specific to that DOM element. This object might be interested in listening to events such as clicks that happen within that DOM element. The information we get in those callbacks is the element that triggered it, and not the associated object. You could use jQuery's data API or any type of map in general to retrieve the corresponding object, and do something with it.

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