Parsing object of objects

Question

I'd like to set #currentWord span to the hovered over Chinese word's English translation.

To do that, I'm storing words based on their category in an object:

var vocab = {
"pronouns" :
{
    'wǒ'    : 'I',
    'nǐ'    : 'You',
},
"nouns" : 
{
    'gǒu'   : 'dog'
},
"verbs" : 
{
    'bāng'  : 'help',
    'xún'   : 'search',
}

};

I then call parseHoveredText to send the word to the currentWord span:

$("#currentWord").text(parseHoveredText(word));

parseHoveredText() Function:

function parseHoveredText (word) {
  for (obj in vocab) {
      log(vocab[obj][word]);
      return vocab[obj][word];
  }
  return "";
};

When I hover over "Ni", it correctly outputs the English "You"

enter image description here

Console output is also correct: You

However: Hovering over bang (in the "verbs" object) outputs nothing:

enter image description here

Console output shows: Undefined

The weird thing is: If I comment out //return vocab[obj][word];, the console outputs the correct associated English, "Help", but still doesn't display it to the span...

Why is that?

Thanks!

@Sergio it's a different question...

user3871
– user3871

2013-08-30 19:08:04 +00:00
Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 19:08 — user3871
– user3871, Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 19:08

Felix Kling · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-30 19:08:38Z

4

You are iterating over the whole vocab object and returning in the first iteration without even checking whether the word is in the inner object.

Hovering over "Ni" works "by chance" since it seems that the property in the first iteration is nouns. But since "bang" is not in vocab.nouns, you get undefined.

You have to check whether the word is contained in each category and return the translation when you found it.

for (obj in vocab) {
    if (word in vocab[obj]) {
        return vocab[obj][word];
    }
}

answered Aug 30, 2013 at 19:08

Felix Kling

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3 Comments

user3871 Over a year ago

Quick question, since my incoming dialog text might be capital (Nǐ) or lower case (nǐ), and that my vocab object only has lower case nǐ, I wanted to make sure all cases were checked... So I'm doing if (word in vocab[obj] || word.toLowerCase() in vocab[obj]) { but it's not working... Why?

Felix Kling Over a year ago

I cannot say, it seems to work for me: jsfiddle.net/CbKzh. Maybe you want to try word.toLocaleLowerCase() instead.

user3871 Over a year ago

Hmm this also did not work... log(word + ", " + word.toLowerCase() + ", " + vocab[obj][word]); outputs Nǐ, nǐ, undefined

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-30 19:09:47Z

1

You need to check whether the element exists in the current part of speech before returning:

function parseHoveredText (word) {
  for (obj in vocab) {
    if (vocab[obj][word]) {
      log(vocab[obj][word]);
      return vocab[obj][word];
    }
  }
  return "";
};

answered Aug 30, 2013 at 19:09

Barmar

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Comments

Dmitry Masley · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-30 19:13:29Z

0

You need to add "if" statement. You code loop through vocab obj but on first step call return and out. If you comment return function will loop through all vocab but will return ""

function parseHoveredText (word) {
  for (obj in vocab) {
     var result = log(vocab[obj][word]);
     if(result)
     {
        log(result);
        return result;
     }
  }
 return "";
};

answered Aug 30, 2013 at 19:13

Dmitry Masley

5244 silver badges9 bronze badges

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