How to access the first property of a Javascript object?
JavascriptObjectJavascript Problem Overview
Is there an elegant way to access the first property of an object...
- where you don't know the name of your properties
- without using a loop like
for .. in
or jQuery's$.each
For example, I need to access foo1
object without knowing the name of foo1:
var example = {
foo1: { /* stuff1 */},
foo2: { /* stuff2 */},
foo3: { /* stuff3 */}
};
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
var obj = { first: 'someVal' };
obj[Object.keys(obj)[0]]; //returns 'someVal'
Using this you can access also other properties by indexes. Be aware tho! Object.keys
return order is not guaranteed as per ECMAScript however unofficially it is by all major browsers implementations, please read https://stackoverflow.com/a/23202095 for details on this.
Solution 2 - Javascript
Try the for … in
loop and break after the first iteration:
for (var prop in object) {
// object[prop]
break;
}
Solution 3 - Javascript
You can also do Object.values(example)[0]
.
Solution 4 - Javascript
Use Object.keys
to get an array of the properties on an object. Example:
var example = {
foo1: { /* stuff1 */},
foo2: { /* stuff2 */},
foo3: { /* stuff3 */}
};
var keys = Object.keys(example); // => ["foo1", "foo2", "foo3"] (Note: the order here is not reliable)
Documentation and cross-browser shim provided here. An example of its use can be found in another one of my answers here.
Edit: for clarity, I just want to echo what was correctly stated in other answers: the key order in JavaScript objects is undefined.
Solution 5 - Javascript
You can use Object.values() to access values of an object:
var obj = { first: 'someVal' };
Object.values(obj)[0]; // someVal
Solution 6 - Javascript
There isn't a "first" property. Object keys are unordered.
If you loop over them with for (var foo in bar)
you will get them in some order, but it may change in future (especially if you add or remove other keys).
Solution 7 - Javascript
A one-rule version:
var val = example[function() { for (var k in example) return k }()];
Solution 8 - Javascript
The top answer could generate the whole array and then capture from the list. Here is an another effective shortcut
var obj = { first: 'someVal' };
Object.entries(obj)[0][1] // someVal
Solution 9 - Javascript
Solution with lodash library:
_.find(example) // => {name: "foo1"}
but there is no guarantee of the object properties internal storage order because it depends on javascript VM implementation.
Solution 10 - Javascript
Here is a cleaner way of getting the first key:
var object = {
foo1: 'value of the first property "foo1"',
foo2: { /* stuff2 */},
foo3: { /* stuff3 */}
};
let [firstKey] = Object.keys(object)
console.log(firstKey)
console.log(object[firstKey])
Solution 11 - Javascript
No. An object literal, as defined by MDN is:
> a list of zero or more pairs of property names and associated values of an object, enclosed in curly braces ({}).
Therefore an object literal is not an array, and you can only access the properties using their explicit name or a for
loop using the in
keyword.
Solution 12 - Javascript
To get the first key name in the object you can use:
var obj = { first: 'someVal' };
Object.keys(obj)[0]; //returns 'first'
Returns a string, so you cant access nested objects if there were, like:
var obj = { first: { someVal : { id : 1} };
Here with that solution you can't access id.
The best solution if you want to get the actual object is using lodash like:
obj[_.first(_.keys(obj))].id
To return the value of the first key, (if you don't know exactly the first key name):
var obj = { first: 'someVal' };
obj[Object.keys(obj)[0]]; //returns 'someVal'
if you know the key name just use:
obj.first
or
obj['first']
Solution 13 - Javascript
if someone prefers array destructuring
const [firstKey] = Object.keys(object);
Solution 14 - Javascript
This has been covered here before.
The concept of first does not apply to object properties, and the order of a for...in loop is not guaranteed by the specs, however in practice it is reliably FIFO except critically for chrome (bug report). Make your decisions accordingly.
Solution 15 - Javascript
I don't recommend you to use Object.keys since its not supported in old IE versions. But if you really need that, you could use the code above to guarantee the back compatibility:
if (!Object.keys) {
Object.keys = (function () {
var hasOwnProperty = Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty,
hasDontEnumBug = !({toString: null}).propertyIsEnumerable('toString'),
dontEnums = [
'toString',
'toLocaleString',
'valueOf',
'hasOwnProperty',
'isPrototypeOf',
'propertyIsEnumerable',
'constructor'
],
dontEnumsLength = dontEnums.length;
return function (obj) {
if (typeof obj !== 'object' && typeof obj !== 'function' || obj === null) throw new TypeError('Object.keys called on non-object');
var result = [];
for (var prop in obj) {
if (hasOwnProperty.call(obj, prop)) result.push(prop);
}
if (hasDontEnumBug) {
for (var i=0; i < dontEnumsLength; i++) {
if (hasOwnProperty.call(obj, dontEnums[i])) result.push(dontEnums[i]);
}
}
return result;
}})()};
Feature Firefox (Gecko)4 (2.0) Chrome 5 Internet Explorer 9 Opera 12 Safari 5
More info: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Object/keys
But if you only need the first one, we could arrange a shorter solution like:
var data = {"key1":"123","key2":"456"};
var first = {};
for(key in data){
if(data.hasOwnProperty(key)){
first.key = key;
first.content = data[key];
break;
}
}
console.log(first); // {key:"key",content:"123"}
Solution 16 - Javascript
If you need to access "the first property of an object", it might mean that there is something wrong with your logic. The order of an object's properties should not matter.
Solution 17 - Javascript
we can also do with this approch.
var example = {
foo1: { /* stuff1 */},
foo2: { /* stuff2 */},
foo3: { /* stuff3 */}
};
Object.entries(example)[0][1];
Solution 18 - Javascript
Any reason not to do this?
> example.map(x => x.name);
(3) ["foo1", "foo2", "foo3"]
Solution 19 - Javascript
Basic syntax to iterate through key-value gracefully
const object1 = {
a: 'somestring',
b: 42
};
for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(object1)) {
console.log(`${key}: ${value}`);
}
// expected output:
// "a: somestring"
// "b: 42"
Solution 20 - Javascript
As others have pointed out, if the order of properties is important, storing them in an object is not a good idea. Instead, you should use an array via square brackets. E.g.,
var example = [ {/* stuff1 */}, { /* stuff2 */}, { /* stuff3 */}];
var first = example[0];
Note that you lose the 'foo' identifiers. But you could add a name property to the contained objects:
var example = [
{name: 'foo1', /* stuff1 */},
{name: 'foo2', /* stuff2 */},
{name: 'foo3', /* stuff3 */}
];
var whatWasFirst = example[0].name;
For those seeking an answer to a similar question, namely: "How do I find one or more properties that match a certain pattern?", I'd recommend using Object.keys()
. To extend benekastah's answer:
for (const propName of Object.keys(example)) {
if (propName.startsWith('foo')) {
console.log(`Found propName ${propName} with value ${example[propName]}`);
break;
}
}