Is it possible to create a “weak reference” in javascript?

Question

Is there any way in javascript to create a \"weak reference\" to another object? Here is the wiki page describing what a weak reference is. Here is another article that desc

Answer 1

Using a caching mechanism to emulate a weak reference, as JL235 suggested above, is reasonable. If weak references would exist natively, you would observe a behavior like this:

this.val = {};
this.ref = new WeakReference(this.val);
...
this.ref.get(); // always returns val
...
this.val = null; // no more references
...
this.ref.get(); // may still return val, depending on already gc'd or not

Whereas with a cache you would observe:

this.val = {};
this.key = cache.put(this.val);
...
cache.get(this.key); // returns val, until evicted by other cache puts
...
this.val = null; // no more references
...
cache.get(this.key); // returns val, until evicted by other cache puts

As a holder of a reference, you should not make any assumptions about when it refers to a value, this is no different using a cache