Detecting and fixing circular references in JavaScript

Question

Given I have a circular reference in a large JavaScript object

And I try JSON.stringify(problematicObject)

And the browser throws

Answer 1

I just made this. It may be dirty, but works anyway... :P

function dump(orig){
  var inspectedObjects = [];
  console.log('== DUMP ==');
  (function _dump(o,t){
    console.log(t+' Type '+(typeof o));
    for(var i in o){
      if(o[i] === orig){
        console.log(t+' '+i+': [recursive]'); 
        continue;
      }
      var ind = 1+inspectedObjects.indexOf(o[i]);
      if(ind>0) console.log(t+' '+i+':  [already inspected ('+ind+')]');
      else{
        console.log(t+' '+i+': ('+inspectedObjects.push(o[i])+')');
        _dump(o[i],t+'>>');
      }
    }
  }(orig,'>'));
}

Then

var a = [1,2,3], b = [a,4,5,6], c = {'x':a,'y':b};
a.push(c); dump(c);

Says

== DUMP ==
> Type object
> x: (1)
>>> Type object
>>> 0: (2)
>>>>> Type number
>>> 1: (3)
>>>>> Type number
>>> 2: (4)
>>>>> Type number
>>> 3: [recursive]
> y: (5)
>>> Type object
>>> 0:  [already inspected (1)]
>>> 1: (6)
>>>>> Type number
>>> 2: (7)
>>>>> Type number
>>> 3: (8)
>>>>> Type number

This tells that c.x[3] is equal to c, and c.x = c.y[0].

Or, a little edit to this function can tell you what you need...

function findRecursive(orig){
  var inspectedObjects = [];
  (function _find(o,s){
    for(var i in o){
      if(o[i] === orig){
        console.log('Found: obj.'+s.join('.')+'.'+i); 
        return;
      }
      if(inspectedObjects.indexOf(o[i])>=0) continue;
      else{
        inspectedObjects.push(o[i]);
        s.push(i); _find(o[i],s); s.pop(i);
      }
    }
  }(orig,[]));
}