Question

Lets say I have

var myObject = {

  'myFunction' : function () {
    // something here that lets me get 'myObject'
  }

}

I have tried various functions found here and stuff like this.constructor.name but i always get ‘Object’ as the value returned. Is there any way to get the actual name of the variable in this situation?

edit to explain the why so maybe people will better understand…I want to be able to make a function that is continuously called with setInterval. Something like this:

var myObject = {
  'intval' : '',
  'timeout' : 500,

  'start' : function () {
    this.objectName = 'myObject'; // <--I want this to be dynamically popped
    this.intval=window.setInterval("window['"+this.objectName+"'].myFunction()",this.timeout);
  },

  'stop' : function () {
    window.clearInterval(this.intval);
    this.intval='';
  },

  'myFunction' : function () {
    // do something
  }
}

This works just fine if i hardcode ‘myObject’ to this.objectName but I don’t want it to be hardcoded. Problem is that I wan’t just do setInterval("window[this.objectName]",100) becausethisis not in the right context whensetInterval` is run, and I don’t want to have the objectname hardcoded

Answer 1

One way;

var myObject = {
    'myFunction' : function () {
        for (var name in window) {
            if (window[name] === this) { 
                alert(name);
                break;
            }
        }
     }
}

Not very nice IMO, marginally better if you wrap it in your own namespace.

You could also always

var myObject = {
    moniker: "myObject",
    ...

In light of your update you don’t need to resolve the object at all;

var myObject = {
    'intval' : '',
    'timeout' : 1500,
    'start' : function () {
        var self = this;
        this.intval = window.setInterval(function() {
            self.myFunction()
        }, this.timeout);
    },
    'myFunction' : function() {
        alert(this.intval);
    }
}