JS object naming issue

Question

Probably a really silly question, but I can't fathom it:

I want to be able to create a tab by calling a function - newTab(); I want this function to create a new tab object (that I can manipulate by doing things such as tab0.close();)

My problem arises in getting the object to have a unique name:

//This will be used for the object ID
var tabQty = 0;

//Call to create a tab
newTab();

//Function to make the tab
function newTab(){
   //This is how I want to make the names - tab0, tab1, tab2 etc
   tabName = "tab" + tabQty;

   // - this is my problem line - I can't use tabName = as it just overwrites the value of tabName. How do I get around this?
   return tabName = new tabBuilder(tabName);
}




function tabBuilder(tabName){
   return{
      name: tabName,
      close: function(){//blah}

      //More to come here
   }
}

I understand this may not be the best way of doing things either, so I'm open to suggestions!

Cheers,

Rob W · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-23 13:42:43Z

3

If you want to globally declare the new variable with a dynamic name, use window[tabName] = .... Otherwise (recommended), create a new object,tabs, and store all references to the tabBuilder object at tabs.

var tabs = {};
function newTab(){
   //This is how I want to make the names - tab0, tab1, tab2 etc
   var tabName = "tab" + tabQty;
   tabQty++;    // Added to implement the "unique tab name" feature

   return (tabs[tabName] = new tabBuilder(tabName));
}

I have added var before tabName = "tab" + tabQty, so that the variable does not leak to the global scope. Also, I have added tabQty++ so that each generated name is unique.

answered Nov 23, 2011 at 13:42

Rob W

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