Question

I have a JS object property defined in an object literal:

reqHeader: [{name:'Chris'},{age:'06'}]

which I am nesting inside another property in the same object literal:

content: {headers:
              {reqHeader: this.reqHeader}
          },

Now when I try to access this from a method in the same object literal, it says it is undefined:

getHeaders: function(){
    var a = this.content['headers']['reqHeader'];
    alert(a);
}

Full code: http://jsfiddle.net/Amnesiac/zZP83/5/

Thanks,
Chris.

Answer 1

That won’t work, because this is not a reference to that object. That is, it is not the case that JavaScript sets this to refer to an object that’s “under construction” inside the object literal block. It remains set to whatever it is outside that expression.

What you can do is something like:

var obj = {
  reqHeaders: /* whatever */,
  content: {
    headers: {
    }
  }
};

obj.content.headers.reqHeader = obj.reqHeader;