How to Access the Parent Object of a Nested Object in JavaScript?

How to Get the Parent Object of a Nested Object in JavaScript

In JavaScript, nested objects are commonly used to organize data in a hierarchical fashion. However, retrieving the parent object of a nested child object can be a bit tricky.

Consider the following example:

const obj = { subObj: { foo: 'hello world' } };

const s = obj.subObj;

The variable s now references the subObj object. Is it possible to obtain a reference to the obj object (the parent) from s?

No, a nested object does not have direct access to its parent.

This concept can be illustrated using another example:

const main = {
    name: "main object",
    child: {
        name: "child object"
    }
};

While main can access child.name, child cannot access main.name or any other properties of main.

Solution Using a Function

To overcome this limitation, a custom function can be used to initialize the child object with a reference to its parent:

const main = {
    name: "main object",
    child: {
        name: "child object"
    },
    init() {
        this.child.parent = this;
        delete this.init;
        return this;
    }
}.init();

Now, main.child.parent.name provides access to the main object's name property.

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