When working on Sheets API – Developer Metadata it becomes clear that some of the request objects can go to quite a depth, so you end up doing something like this.
|
1 |
var r = {a:{b:{c:{d:{e:true}}}}; |
This becomes more complicated when say, a.b.c already exists, and has already some other stuff in it. One way round this is to use an extend type function – there is one available in my cUseful.Utils library so you could do this to merge the new data into the old object.
|
1 |
var r = cUseful.Utils.vanExtend ( r , a:{b:{c:{d:{e:true}}}} ); |
But – you still have to construct that complex object.
Here’s an alternative way – You can get this in the cUseful library
1EbLSESpiGkI3PYmJqWh3-rmLkYKAtCNPi1L2YCtMgo2Ut8xMThfJ41Ex
or on github
Propify
The idea is to be able to specify the parent properties you need in the resulting object as a string
|
1 |
var r = propify ( "a.b.c.d", r); |
will create an object of the required structure, so you can just do this. Any existing objects in the heirarchy will be preserved, and any missing ones will be added
|
1 |
r.a.b.c.d.e = true; |
or even this
|
1 |
propify ( "a.b.c.d", r).e=true; |
Here’s some examples and results
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 |
function testPropify() { // get from library var propify = cUseful.Utils.propify; Logger.log (propify("details")); // {details={}} Logger.log (propify("details.profile")); //{details={profile={}}} var card = propify("contact.details.profile", {contact:{}}); Logger.log (card); // {contact={details={profile={}}}} propify ("contact.details.profile.telephones", card); Logger.log (card); // {contact={details={profile={telephones={}}}}} // can use a branch of the object to propify it, and will return the branch var profile = propify ("telephones", card.contact.details.profile); Logger.log (card); // {contact={details={profile={telephones={}}}}} Logger.log (profile); // {telephones={}} // add another couple of branches propify ("emails" , profile); propify ("urls", card.contact.details); Logger.log (card); // {contact={details={urls={}, profile={emails={}, telephones={}}}}} // we can use the branch profile.telephones.mobile="1234" // or the full object card.contact.details.profile.telephones.home="1234"; Logger.log (card); // {contact={details={urls={}, profile={emails={}, telephones={mobile=1234, home=1234}}}}} // should fail because mobile is not an object propify ("contact.details.profile.telephones.mobile", card); } |
The code
Propify code is the library, but also below for convenience. There’s not much to it, but it’s pretty handy.
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 |
/** * a short cut to add nested properties to a an object * @param {object} [base] the base object * @param {string} propertyScheme something like "a.b.c" will extend as necessary * @return {object} base updated */ ns.propify = function (propertyScheme ,base) { // if base not specified, create it if (typeof base === typeof undefined) base = {}; // make sure its an object if (typeof base !== typeof {} ) throw 'propify:base needs to be an object'; // work through the scheme (propertyScheme || "").split (".") .reduce (function (p,c) { // add a branch if not already existing if (typeof p[c] === typeof undefined) p[c] = {}; // make sure we're not overwriting anything if (typeof p[c] !== typeof {}) throw 'propify:branch ' + c + ' not an object in ' + propertyScheme; // move down the branch return p[c]; } , base); // now should have the required shape return base; }; |