Solving the Javascript Dynamic Object Property Value Issue in React Material-UI Autocomplete

Описание: Discover how to efficiently retrieve dynamic object property values in a React Material-UI Autocomplete component and enhance your coding skills with best practices.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/63647165/ asked by the user 'user2810927' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/2810927/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/63647561/ provided by the user 'Tushar' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/10147342/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: Problem getting a Javascript dynamic Object property value

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
Problem: Accessing Javascript Dynamic Object Property Values in React

If you're running a React application using Material-UI, you might face challenges when trying to retrieve dynamic properties from a Javascript object. This is particularly common when working with autocomplete components where you want to select a value and get its corresponding property. If you’ve been using standard Javascript methods and received errors like “Cannot convert undefined or null to object,” you’re not alone. In this post, we’ll explore a clear solution for this common problem.

Understanding the Issue

In your autocomplete component, you may initially set up event handlers to fetch and manipulate data based on user interactions. However, conventional methods like Object.property or Object["property"] might not yield the expected results if your data structure does not align with those attempts. Below is a summary of the issue your code faces:

Identify Selected Value: Users select a value from the dropdown, and you need to access the corresponding townid in a Javascript object.

TypeError: Attempts to access properties using standard methods lead to errors if these properties aren't directly referenced or if the object is not correctly defined at that moment.

Solution: Using onChange to Retrieve Object Properties

To effectively retrieve dynamic object property values, we will utilize the onChange prop available in the Material-UI Autocomplete component. Here’s how to implement this solution step-by-step.

Step 1: Modify Your Autocomplete Component

In your Autocomplete component, you need to add the onChange event handler that passes the selected value into a dedicated function. Update your code as follows:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Define the updateValue Function

Create a new method that handles the change event. This function will extract and log the desired properties from the resulting selection in the autocomplete.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Here’s what happens in this function:

The first console log gives you the label of the selected value.

The second log shows the complete object that was selected from the dropdown, allowing you to access any property directly without additional searching.

Step 3: Accessing Town ID

With the above implementation, you can directly access the townid (or any other properties) from the val argument in updateValue. For instance, you could expand your function as follows:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Conclusion

By taking advantage of the onChange method of the Material-UI Autocomplete component, accessing dynamic properties and enhancing your user experience becomes straightforward. Rather than relying on cumbersome methods that lead to TypeErrors, this technique ensures you can directly retrieve the desired information effectively.

Now, you’ll find it much easier to work with complex data structures in your React applications. Keep experimenting with these methods for a better coding experience!