Question

Is it possible to define an object within another object? I’m thinking something like this:

function MyObj(name) {
    this.name = name;

    function EmbeddedObj(id) {
        this.id = id;
    }
}

And I could then create an EmbeddedObj like this:

var myEmbeddedObj = new MyObj.EmbeddedObj();

Meme for bonus points: Objectception! 😮

Answer 1

Yes, and no.

function MyObj(name) {
    this.name = name;
}
MyObj.EmbeddedObj = function EmbeddedObj(id) {
    this.id = id;
}
new MyObj.EmbeddedObj(42);

Would run, but it might not yield the expected results for “embedded object” (see comment).

Note that in the case of new expr the expression is evaluated first so, in this case it creates a new object using the function-object evaluated from MyObject.EmbeddedObj as a constructor. (There is a silly rule with parenthesis in the expression, but that’s another story.)

---

Now, if a “parent” and “child” relationship was desired, that could be done, using a more round-about method:

function Parent (name) {
   this.name = name;
   var parent = this; // for closure
   this.Child = function Child () {
      this.Parent = parent;
   }
}

// create new parent object
var parent = new Parent();       
// each new parent has a different Child constructor and
// any function-object can be used as a constructor
var child = new parent.Child();
// true: child is "bound" to parent
child.Parent === parent;