Turn a string into a variable name using window (JavaScript)

Question

After scouring the forums, I've been trying to use window to turn a parameter entered as a string into a workable variable. Here we start with the target location in the p tag...

<p id="rent"></p>

Then I call the function using the parameter "rent" to obtain the variable rent.

var rent = 125;
function display(attribute) {
        document.getElementById(attribute).innerHTML = window.attribute;
    }
display("rent");

However it still returns "undefined" so I must be making a mistake in syntax. Any solutions?

Update: @Sidd has the right approach in changing it to window[attribute] but I still can't get it to work with object properties, for example if you call rent.amt.

Sidd · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-07 20:40:27Z

1

You almost have it:

var rent = 125;
function display(attribute) {
    document.getElementById(attribute).innerHTML = window[attribute];
}
display("rent");

window.attribute looks for a variable called attribute instead.

answered May 7, 2015 at 20:40

Sidd

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4 Comments

EnglishTeacherEric Over a year ago

did you test that out? Now it's giving me [object HTMLParagraphElement] instead of undefined. How do I get 125?

Sidd Over a year ago

Also works on codepen. I think you might be using jsFiddle, which doesn't provide consistent access to the window variable.

EnglishTeacherEric Over a year ago

Huh, it wasn't working before but I can now get it going with this simple code. What seems to be causing bugs is using this for an object. var rent = { amt: 125, }; function display(attribute) { document.getElementById(attribute).innerText = window[attribute]; } display("rent.amt");

EnglishTeacherEric Over a year ago

I can confirm that the issue is related to objects because it is working without them.

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