enter a nested property of an object using a string

July 10, 2022

I have the following string:

const str = "prop1.prop2.prop3"

I want to use this string to access the property prop3 of the following object:

const obj = {
   prop1: {
      prop2:{
         prop3:{
            // ---- destination point
         }
      }
   }
}

But I’m not able to figure out how to do it?
there must be something that keeps adding the obj[currentProp] so on and so on. and.. isn’t there a quicker method? I’m afraid I’m wasting my time on something that can be achieved more easily

>Solution :

This would be my approach:

const access = (path, object) => {
  return path.split('.').reduce((o, i) => o[i], object)
}

const obj = {
  prop1: {
    prop2: {
      prop3: {
        value: 'foo'
      }
    }
  }
}

const str = 'prop1.prop2.prop3'

console.log(access(str, obj)) // {"value": "foo"}