- The last post introduced a method to the dog object. It used dog.name dot notation to access the value for the name property within the return statement:
sayName: function() {return "The name of this dog is " + dog.name + ".";}
While this is a valid way to access the object's property, there is a pitfall here. If the variable name changes, any code referencing the original name would need to be updated as well. In a short object definition, it isn't a problem, but if an object has many references to its properties there is a greater chance for error.
A way to avoid these issues is with the this keyword:
let dog = {
name: "Anakin",
numLegs: 4,
sayName: function() {return "The name of this dog is " + this.name + ".";}
};
dog.sayLegs();
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thisis a deep topic, and the above example is only one way to use it. In the current context,thisrefers to the object that the method is associated with:dog. If the object's name is changed tohusky, it is not necessary to find all the references todogin the code. It makes the code reusable and easier to read.
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