Question

I wanted to set a variable to point to property in an newly created object to save a “lookup” as shown in the example below. Basically, I thought the variable is a reference to the object’s property. This is not the case; it looks like the variable holds the value. The first console.log is 1 (which is the value I want to assign to photoGalleryMod.slide) but when looking at photoGalleryMod.slide, it’s still 0.

Is there a way to do this? Thanks.

(function() {
    var instance;

    PhotoGalleryModule = function PhotoGalleryModule() {

        if (instance) {
            return instance;
        }

        instance = this;

        /* Properties */
        this.slide = 0;
    };
}());

window.photoGalleryMod = new PhotoGalleryModule();

/* Tried to set a variable so I could use test, instead of writing photoGalleryMod.slide all the time plus it saves a lookup */

var test = photoGalleryMod.slide;

test = test + 1;

console.log(test);
console.log(photoGalleryMod.slide);

Answer 1

it looks like the variable holds the value

That’s correct. Since you’re using number primitives, variables contain the value rather than pointing to it. Variables only contain references when they’re referring to objects.

The way to do it is to use an object property and to point to the object — which is exactly what you have with photoGalleryMod and its slide property.