Setting nested properties in Javascript / AngularJS

Question

I'm using AngularJS, and I want to set some config vars in my controller.

For example:

 $rootScope.config.showPosts.users = true;
    $rootScope.config.showPosts.businesses = false;
    $rootScope.config.showAds.businesses = true;

What is the correct way to declare "nested" properties like these? At the moment I have:

 $rootScope.config = [];
    $rootScope.config.showPosts = []; 
    $rootScope.config.showAds = [];
    // ^ as you can see, I am declaring each key of the array individually :( 
    $rootScope.config.showPosts.users = true;
    $rootScope.config.showPosts.businesses = false;
    $rootScope.config.showAds.businesses = true;

I don't have to declare every level of the array individually before I set it, do I? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can use object litteral:

rootScope.config = {
  showPosts: { 
    users: true,
    businesses: false
  },
  showAds: {
    businesses: true
  }
};

Answer 2

The problem is that you are trying to set a property over an array .

You wrote:

$rootScope.config.showPosts = []; 

Then you try to write:

$rootScope.config.showPosts.users = true;

So $rootScope.config.showPosts should be an object instead of an array here. Change your code like this:

$rootScope.config = {};
$rootScope.config.showPosts = {}; 
$rootScope.config.showAds = {};

I don't have to declare every level of the array individually before I set it, do I?

No you don't need to declare these objects individually, you can declare the whole configuration object in one statement like shown in the other answer.