Why is the console saying that my var is not defined?

[k.williams1654]

Tell us what’s happening:

I am on Basic JavaScript: Testing Objects for Properties Lessons. For this lesson, I am tasked with creating a function that checks if a property is in an object or not using .hasOwnProperty() method outputting true or false depending on if it is. If someone could explain method I would be very much appreciate it.

Here are the instructions copied and pasted:
" Modify the function checkObj to test if an object passed to the function ( obj ) contains a specific property ( checkProp ). If the property is found, return that property’s value. If not, return "Not Found" ."

So I actually passed this question this is my completed code. I used an example object to test it out in both my codes.

 var myObj = {
    top: "shirt",
    bottom: "pants"
  };

function checkObj(obj, checkProp) {
  // Only change code below this line
 
  var check = obj.hasOwnProperty(checkProp);
  if (check == true) {
    return obj[checkProp];
    } else {
      return "Not Found";
    }
  // Only change code above this line
}
var propName = checkObj(myObj, "top");
console.log(propName);

The code below this one is what I was writing at first. I am guessing the problem was that there was a scope limitation with the variable/ object defined in my function. BUT why in this case!? I thought if I named the object in my function argument it would be okay since the object would be passing through the function. Could someone please explain if I am making sense I would greatly appreciate it!

My code I had before I removed the variable outside the function

function checkObj(obj, checkProp) {
// Only change code below this line
var myObj = {
  top: "shirt",
  bottom: "pants"
};
var check = obj.hasOwnProperty(checkProp);
if (check == true) {
  return obj[checkProp];
  } else {
    return "Not Found";
  }
// Only change code above this line
}
var propName = checkObj(myObj, "top");
console.log(propName);

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User Agent is: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/87.0.4280.88 Safari/537.36.

Challenge: Testing Objects for Properties

Link to the challenge:

freeCodeCamp.org

[nibble]

@k.williams1654

I am guessing the problem was that there was a scope limitation with the variable/ object defined in my function.

Hello @k.williams1654

It seems you have answered your own question.

Correct me if I am wrong. My understanding of your question is why declaring myObj inside the function doesn’t work but declaring it outside and passing it as an argument works.

If you declare myObj in the function, it is scoped within the body of the function. When you invoke checkObj(myObj, "top") and pass in myObj which has not been declared outside the function, the value of myObj will be undefined. The parameter while declaring the function is obj. So inside the function body, the myObj argument passed and whose value is undefined is known as obj not myObj. Since the body of the function sees obj and its value is undefined you will not get what you are seeking for.

If you want the body of the function to see the locally declared myObj irrespective of what you passed as first argument, try naming the parameter obj as myObj. I don’t think it is advisable to do something of that sort.

[k.williams1654]

Thanks so much for putting this into perspective. I feel like I am reaching a better understanding of scope but it is still hard to wrap my head around for some reason.