How would you define an object in Javascript such that its body would include properties that are also the object you're defining? For example if I was defining a class called Organism - and the definition of any organism included two more organisms called organismA and organismB? Is it like this:
Organism (){
value: value
Organism organismA; //microbe for example
Organism organismB; //bacteria for example
};
Javascript is not a typed language.
You cannot enforce the types of an object's properties. If you want that, look at something like Typescript.
You can make "nested objects"
var microbe = getMicrobe();
var bacteria = getBacteria();
var organism = { organismA: microbe, organismB: bacteria };
but you cannot enforce their types:
// not an error (until you try to use the property as an Organism)
organism.organismA = "Not an Organism";
organism.organismB = 123;
organism.doesntEvenExist = microbe;
If you are trying to create a constructor that will define properties on the instance that are also instances of the object, that is impossible. Lets say for example that this is your constructor:
function Organism () { this.organismA = new Organism(); }
Then trying to create a new instance of that will cause "RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded" and for good reason, because each time a new instance is created, it will try to create a new instance in itself, and so on until you will exceed the stack.
You can however do this in javascript:
function Organism () {}
var organism = new Organism();
organism.organismA = new Organism();
organism.organismB = new Organism();
// And now the instance and its properties are all Organism
console.log('organism is instance of Organism: ' + (organism instanceof Organism)); // true
console.log('organism.organismA is instance of Organism: ' + (organism.organismA instanceof Organism)); //true
console.log('organism.organismB is instance of Organism: ' + (organism.organismB instanceof Organism)); //true
// If you want you can wrap this in a factory
function createExtendedOrganism () {
var organism = new Organism();
organism.organismA = new Organism();
organism.organismB = new Organism();
return organism;
}
var extendedOrganism = createExtendedOrganism();
// Again the instance and its properties are all Organism
console.log('extendedOrganism is instance of Organism: ' + (extendedOrganism instanceof Organism)); //true
console.log('extendedOrganism.organismA is instance of Organism: ' + (extendedOrganism.organismA instanceof Organism)); //true
console.log('extendedOrganism.organismB is instance of Organism: ' + (extendedOrganism.organismB instanceof Organism)); //true
