How to Create a Hierarchical Property List from Complex Objects Recursively in JavaScript?

Creating a Hierarchical Property List from Complex Objects Recursively

In situations where complex objects contain multiple sub-objects and properties with varying data types, the need arises to build a hierarchical list of those properties. To achieve this, a recursive looping approach is essential.

Given Problem:

An object is provided with the following structure:

<code class="javascript">var object = {
    aProperty: {
        aSetting1: 1,
        aSetting2: 2,
        aSetting3: 3,
        aSetting4: 4,
        aSetting5: 5
    },
    bProperty: {
        bSetting1: {
            bPropertySubSetting : true
        },
        bSetting2: "bString"
    },
    cProperty: {
        cSetting: "cString"
    }
};</code>

Desired Output:

The goal is to create a list of keys that accurately reflects the hierarchy of the object:

aProperty.aSetting1
aProperty.aSetting2
aProperty.aSetting3
aProperty.aSetting4
aProperty.aSetting5
bProperty.bSetting1.bPropertySubSetting
bProperty.bSetting2
cProperty.cSetting

Initial Solution:

<code class="javascript">function iterate(obj) {
    for (var property in obj) {
        if (obj.hasOwnProperty(property)) {
            if (typeof obj[property] == "object") {
                iterate(obj[property]);
            }
            else {
                console.log(property + "   " + obj[property]);
            }
        }
    }
}</code>

This function loops through the object and prints the keys, but it does not maintain the hierarchy.

Recursive Solution:

To preserve the hierarchy, we can maintain a stack string that represents the path of the current property. When a primitive property is encountered, the path is printed. For nested objects, the stack is updated, and the recursion continues.

<code class="javascript">function iterate(obj, stack) {
        for (var property in obj) {
            if (obj.hasOwnProperty(property)) {
                if (typeof obj[property] == "object") {
                    iterate(obj[property], stack + '.' + property);
                } else {
                    console.log(property + "   " + obj[property]);
                    $('#output').append($(&quot;<div/>&quot;).text(stack + '.' + property))
                }
            }
        }
    }

iterate(object, '');</code>

Additional Notes:

• This solution maintains the same object structure but appends the complete path to the output list.
• For a more elegant solution that separates the hierarchy from the data, refer to another answer.

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