Objects/Structs Data Type

We have been working through a high level discussion of the various data types of programming. In our last post, we discussed arrays, which is a more complex data type. Today we are going to discuss another complex data type (and my favorite)…objects/structs.

Objects (or structs as some languages refer to them) are just that…objects. Objects have properties that distinguish them from other objects. Let’s use people as an example, even though it may be somewhat demeaning to think of people as objects…it will serve our purposes. Every person has properties, or characteristics, that distinguish them from someone else. You have your own name, your own driver’s license number, your own address, etc. These properties are what make you you. It is the same way with objects in programming.

Here is an example…

[code lang=”js”]
var person={
firstName : "John",
lastName : "Doe",
id : 5566
};
[/code]

So, in our example, the person object has properties of a firstName, lastName and id. These properties distinguish John from other persons, especially the id property.

To access these objects, it is easy. In JavaScript there are two ways…

[code lang=”js”]
// first method
name = person.firstName;
// second method
name = person["firstName"];
[/code]

So, not only are objects fairly easy to use in our code, but they are also intuitive in their representation of their data.

Happy Coding!