Question

I am trying to update the contents of a variable in nodejs with the use of a string.
In client side javascript this was done with the use of window[variable] however since there is no “window” in nodejs. I tried using “this” and “module”, however all im getting is an empty object. need help thanks

Code Snippet:

var myVariable = 'Hello';
var exchangeVariable = 'myVariable';

this[exchangeVariable] = 'Hello World';

/*
    myVariable should equal to 'Hello World!'
*/

Thanks!

Answer 1

Here’s some background before I answer your question directly:

In JavaScript, objects can be either indexed by the dot notation (someObj.property) or by indexing them as you do in your example (someObj["property"])

In the browser, window is the global context that the browser evaluates your code within. Node uses a variable called global.

So, if you want to reference a variable you’ve defined globally:

> var someGlobalVar = "hi";
> var myLookupKey = "someGlobalVar";
> global[myLookupKey]
'hi'

However, this is generally considered very bad practice (in Node and the browser). There are a myriad of reasons for this, but I’m focusing on just one:

In Node, modules (each required file) should be treated as if they do not share global state (and in some cases, they cannot share state). I encourage you to read through the modules section of the node documentation if you are trying to share state across files.