How to set object property (of object property of..) given its string name in JavaScript?

Question

Suppose we are only given

var obj = {};
var propName = \"foo.bar.foobar\";

How can we set the prop

Answer 1

Here is a get and set function i just compiled from a couple of threads + some custom code.

It will also create keys that don't exist on set.

function setValue(object, path, value) {
    var a = path.split('.');
    var o = object;
    for (var i = 0; i < a.length - 1; i++) {
        var n = a[i];
        if (n in o) {
            o = o[n];
        } else {
            o[n] = {};
            o = o[n];
        }
    }
    o[a[a.length - 1]] = value;
}

function getValue(object, path) {
    var o = object;
    path = path.replace(/\[(\w+)\]/g, '.$1');
    path = path.replace(/^\./, '');
    var a = path.split('.');
    while (a.length) {
        var n = a.shift();
        if (n in o) {
            o = o[n];
        } else {
            return;
        }
    }
    return o;
}