Question

analyse : function (that) {

        var a = new Array();
        var x = 0;

        $(that).children("li").each(function(){
            console.log('test1');
            a[x]['name'] = 'f'; 
            a[x]['link'] = 'UUUUUUUUUUU';
            console.log('test2');
            x++;
        })

        return a;
    }

I’m trying to create an array to store the hierarchy from my menu for PHP later on.

The console won’t show me “test2”, what did I do wrong?

---

Transformed into this with Didier G’s Help:

analyse : function (that) {
        return $(that).children('li').map(function() {
            var b = {
                name: $(this).children('a').text(), 
                link: $(this).children('a').attr('href')
            };
            if ($(this).children('ul').size() > 0) {
               b.childs =  mcms.module.analyse($(this).children('ul'));
            } 
            return b;
        });
    }

So if i say var y = analyse('#menu'); I get the whole bunch! ^^

Answer 1

'a[x]' is undefined at that moment. You have to first build an object and assign it to ‘i’ position (‘x’ is indeed a not standard name for an iterator, thanks @Cito):

var a = new Array();
var i = 0;

$(that).children("li").each(function(){
        console.log('test1');
        a[i] = { name: 'f', link: 'UUUU' };
        console.log('test2');
        i++;
});

Note: your code misses a ; after the each(). Even though it is valid javascript to omit semi-colons, it is I think better to explicitly use them to avoid misinterpretations.

---

Creating array can be achieve by using .map()

var a = [];

// .map() returns a jquery array, to obtain a pure javascript array, you must call .toArray() afterwards
a = $(that).children('li').map(function() {
    return { name: 'f', link: 'UUUU' };
}).toArray();

Here’s a jsfiddle to illustrate

This article covers a the use of .each() and .map() for building data collections out of lists in jquery.