access an object in a function using javascript

Question

I am new to JS and have created this original problem from CodeAcademy which works. Now I wanted to put my flock of sheep into an object and access it using my sheepCounter function. I am new to accessing key/values from an object and am stuck on what I am doing wrong. Thanks in advance!

Original Code 

var sheepCounter = function (numSheep, monthNumber, monthsToPrint) {
  for (monthNumber = monthNumber; monthNumber <= monthsToPrint; monthNumber++) {
    numSheep *= 4;
    console.log("There will be " + numSheep + " sheep after " + monthNumber + " month(s)!"); 
  } 
  return numSheep;
}

New Code: 

var flock = {
    sheep: 4, 
    month: 1, 
    totalMonths: 12
};

var sheepCounter = function (counter) {
  for (counter[month] = counter[month]; counter[month] <= counter[totalMonths]; counter[month]++) {
    numSheep *= 4;
    console.log("There will be " + counter[sheep] + " sheep after " + counter[month] + " month(s)!"); 
  } 
  return counter[sheep];
}

Can you please explain the problem clearly?

thefourtheye
– thefourtheye

2013-12-19 05:53:25 +00:00
Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 5:53 — thefourtheye
– thefourtheye, Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 5:53

Dhanu Gurung · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-19 06:06:44Z

2

Found the error in your solution:

var sheepCounter = function (counter) {
  for (counter['month'] = counter['month']; counter['month'] <= counter['totalMonths']; counter['month']++) {
    counter['sheep'] *= 4;
    console.log("There will be " + counter['sheep'] + " sheep after " + counter['month'] + " month(s)!"); 
  } 
  return counter['sheep'];
}

edited Dec 19, 2013 at 6:06

answered Dec 19, 2013 at 6:01

Dhanu Gurung

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4 Comments

Dhanu Gurung Over a year ago

However, better to use dot notation here like counter.month, counter.totalMonths, counter.sheep instead of its brackets notation. Choice is yours. :)

jstone Over a year ago

Thanks for the help, I see my rookie mistake :) I owe you a beer! Is there an advantage of using dot notation?

Dhanu Gurung Over a year ago

Looks cleaner, character saving like you put just dot instead of single quotes and brackets :)

jstone Over a year ago

This should help others as I did it with dot notation using a while loop

var sheepCounter = function (counter) { 	while(counter.month <= counter.totalMonths) {     counter.sheep *= 4;   	console.log("There will be " + counter.sheep + " sheep after " + counter.month + " months(s)!");   	counter.month++;   } };

Alan Bowen · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-19 06:01:38Z

0

You can access your Flock Object like so,

alert(flock.sheep); //4

If you have an array in an object, like

names: ['joe','tom','bob'];

You would access that like so,

alert(flock.names[0]); // joe
alert(flock.names[2]); // bob

answered Dec 19, 2013 at 6:01

Alan Bowen

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