Organizing and Simplifying JavaScript with Object Literals - 12

Re-opening this closed thread ...

You say that "status:" and "rescueBatman:" are variables, so why do you use ":" to define the variable, why can't you use "="?

also you don't explain object literal very well, this is supposed to be for Absolute Beginners and you were speaking about it as if we have previous knowledge like with C# and it sounds very complicated so this lesson really did nothing for me while the other previous ones have been good.

@Lee Wood: Hey Lee, sorry this video didn't do a very good job of explaining it.  If / when I ever re-do this video, I'll pay more attention to how I go about this.  Thanks for the feedback.

If I said that those object members are "variables", that was a misstatement and I apologize.  They are MEMBERS of an object.  Objects can have properties (attributes) and methods (functionality).  In this case, "status" is a property / attribute, and "rescueBatman" is a method.  Both are members of the whole, of the new object.  We set a reference to that new object using the equals = operator.

Why use a colon : and not an equals = operator? Here are two examples that are functionality equivalent:

var myObject = {
    firstProperty:'some value',
    secondProperty:'some other value'};

.. is functionally the same as:

var myObject = new Object();
myObject.firstProperty = 'some value';
myObject.secondProperty = 'some other value';

You'll see the former syntax (with the colon : ) more often in JavaScript because it is so compact. In fact, as you learn more, you'll that this is the defacto way to pass data between servers and web browser clients using this exact style of syntax, called JSON (IavaScript Object Notation) BECAUSE it is so compact. More about that in an upcoming video.

Hope that helps? Please feel free to follow up ... we'll get to the bottom of this!