Object Literals

Object Literals

An object literal is the simplest way to create an object in JavaScript — define it directly with curly braces.

Creating an Object

var user = {
    name: 'Shaun',
    age: 30,
    email: 'shaun@example.com',
    location: 'Manchester',
    blogs: ['Why I love JS', '10 CSS tips']
};

Accessing Properties

// Dot notation
console.log(user.name);       // 'Shaun'
console.log(user.blogs);      // ['Why I love JS', '10 CSS tips']

// Bracket notation
console.log(user['email']);    // 'shaun@example.com'

// Bracket notation with variables
var key = 'location';
console.log(user[key]);        // 'Manchester'

Adding Methods

var user = {
    name: 'Shaun',
    age: 30,
    login: function() {
        console.log('User logged in');
    },
    logout: function() {
        console.log('User logged out');
    }
};

user.login();   // 'User logged in'
user.logout();  // 'User logged out'

The this Keyword

var user = {
    name: 'Shaun',
    age: 30,
    greet: function() {
        console.log('Hello, my name is ' + this.name);
    }
};

user.greet();  // 'Hello, my name is Shaun'

this refers to the object the method belongs to. Inside user.greet(), this is user.

When to Use Object Literals

Use Case	Good Fit?
Single, one-off objects	Yes — quick and simple
Configuration objects	Yes — group settings together
Many objects of the same type	No — use classes instead

Key Takeaways

• Object literals are created with { key: value } syntax
• Access properties with dot notation (obj.prop) or bracket notation (obj['prop'])
• this inside a method refers to the object it belongs to
• Object literals are great for single objects, but not for creating many similar objects