[javascript] How to create an object property from a variable value in JavaScript?

I want to add a new property to 'myObj', name it 'string1' and give it a value of 'string2', but when I do it it returns 'undefined:

var myObj = new Object;
var a = 'string1';
var b = 'string2';
myObj.a = b;

alert(myObj.string1); //Returns 'undefined'
alert(myObj.a); //Returns 'string2'

In other words: How do I create an object property and give it the name stored in the variable, but not the name of the variable itself?

Ecu, if you do myObj.a, then it looks for the property named a of myObj. If you do myObj[a] =b then it looks for the a.valueOf() property of myObj.

You cannot use a variable to access a property via dot notation, instead use the array notation.

var obj= {
     'name' : 'jroi'
};
var a = 'name';
alert(obj.a); //will not work
alert(obj[a]); //should work and alert jroi'

Dot notation and the properties are equivalent. So you would accomplish like so:

var myObj = new Object;
var a = 'string1';
myObj[a] = 'whatever';
alert(myObj.string1)

(alerts "whatever")

As $scope is an object, you can try with JavaScript by:

$scope['something'] = 'hey'

It is equal to:

$scope.something = 'hey'

I created a fiddle to test.

ES6 introduces computed property names, which allow you to do

var myObj = {[a]: b};

Note browser support is currently negligible.

Oneliner:

obj = (function(attr, val){ var a = {}; a[attr]=val; return a; })('hash', 5);

Or:

attr = 'hash';
val = 5;
var obj = (obj={}, obj[attr]=val, obj);

Anything shorter?

The following demonstrates an alternative approach for returning a key pair object using the form of (a, b). The first example uses the string 'key' as the property name, and 'val' as the value.

Example #1:

(function(o,a,b){return o[a]=b,o})({},'key','val');

Example: #2:

var obj = { foo: 'bar' };
(function(o,a,b){return o[a]=b,o})(obj,'key','val');

As shown in the second example, this can modify existing objects, too (if property is already defined in the object, value will be overwritten).

Result #1: { key: 'val' }

Result #2: { foo: 'bar', key: 'val' }

You could just use this:

function createObject(propName, propValue){
    this[propName] = propValue;
}
var myObj1 = new createObject('string1','string2');

Anything you pass as the first parameter will be the property name, and the second parameter is the property value.