Search for a friend (understanding)

travism87 · 2016-03-09 22:36:56 UTC

Hi, the following is the correct code, but I just borrowed it off of another person in the Q&A Forum because I couldn't understand the search function near the end.

Basically, my questions are:

How does the function search find firstName or lastName, if it's searching for name instead of firstName or lastName? Shouldn't name be firstName or lastName? i.e.:

Here: var search = function (name) {
And here: if (friends[key].firstName === name)

And how does

console.log(friends[key]);
return friends[key];

return all the keys for a particular contact?

confused face

leonhard.wettengmx.n · 2016-03-10 00:08:42 UTC

@travmoffat87,

the FUNCTION talk

var myFunc = function( param1, param2) {
       //Begin of  anonymous FUNCTION-BODY
       //VARIABLE -myFunc- has an -anonymous function- assigned
       //this -anonymous function- has 2 PARAMETERS param1 and param2
       //param1 and param2 PARAMETERS are used 
       //as -local- VARIABLES throughout the FUNCTION-BODY

      console.log( param1 + " and " + param2 ) ;

      //End of anonymous FUNCTION-BODY
};

If you want to call/execute the anonymous function
you will have to add a pair of parentheses to the variable myFunc
like
myFunc();
As the anonymous function was defined
as having 2 parameters
you have to provide 2 arguments
in our case 2 string VALUES "Alena" and "Lauren"
like
myFunc("Alena","Lauren");

some quotes from the outer-world:

**argument is the value/variable/reference being passed in,
parameter is the receiving variable used within the function/block**

OR

**"parameters" are called "formal parameters",
while "arguments" are called "actual parameters".**

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

function with 1 parameter using return-statement

var myFunction = function( param1 ) {
       //Begin of FUNCTION-BODY
       //myFunction =function= has 1 PARAMETER param1
       //this param1 PARAMETER is used as a -local- VARIABLE
       //throughout the FUNCTION-BODY

      return param1;

      //End of FUNCTION-BODY
      };

you have defined a myFunction function
which takes 1 parameter param1
this param1 parameter is used
as a variable throughout the FUNCTION-BODY.

If you want to call/execute this myFunction function
and this myFunction function was defined
as having 1 parameter param1
you will have to provide 1 argument
in our case a "number VALUE" 4
myFunction( 4 );

some quotes from the outer-world:

**argument is the value/variable/reference being passed in,
parameter is the receiving variable used within the function/block**

OR

**"parameters" are called "formal parameters",
while "arguments" are called "actual parameters".**

============================================

As you are using the return-statement in your myFunction function
you will only get a return-value no-display.
You can however capture this return-value in a variable
and then use the console.log()-method to do a display.

var theResult = myFunction( 4 );
console.log( theResult );

OR directly

console.log( myFunction( 4 ) );

leonhard.wettengmx.n · 2016-03-10 00:10:01 UTC

@travmoffat87,
+++ friends object explained
@Vignesh Vicki,

var friends= {
              bill: { firstName: 'Bill',
                      lastName: 'Gates',
                      number: '444-444-4444',
                      address: [ 'One Microsoft way', 'Redwood', 'WA' ]
              },
             steve: {
                      firstName: 'Steve',
                      lastName: 'Jobs',
                      number: '333-333-3333',
                      address: [ 'Two infinite loop', 'Bentown', 'DV' ] 
              }
   };

keep repeating these two lines
An object has one or more properties seperated by a comma-,
Each property consists of a property-key and it's associated value

Description of the friends object.
The friends object has 2 properties and are seperated by a comma-,

there is a bill property with property-key bill and it's associated object value
(this associated object has 4 properties, the property-keys being firstName, lastName,number and address)
there is a steve property with property-key steve and it's associated object value
(this associated object has 4 properties, the property-keys being firstName, lastName,number and address)

access via dot-notation == only literal property-key allowed

friends.bill ==> you will get the associated value of the bill property-key, thus
you get the object with 4 properties

friends.bill.lastName ==> you will get the associated value of the lastName property-key

access via the square-bracket-notation == literal & VARIABLE

1 using the literal property-key

friends["bill"]
friends["bill"]["lastName"]

2 using the property-key by reference (=== via a variable )

var propertyKey1 = "bill";
var propertyKey2 ="lastName";
friends[propertyKey1] ==> you will get the associated value of the bill property-key, thus
you get the object with 4 properties

friends[propertyKey1][propertyKey2]
in this case you will get the string VALUE of the lastName property
of the associated object VALUE of bill

leonhard.wettengmx.n · 2016-03-10 00:11:04 UTC

@travmoffat87,
+++++ nyc object and the for-in loop explained ++++++++++++++++

T h e - B a s i c s

An object has one or more properties seperated by a comma-,
Each property consists of a property-key and it's associated VALUE

var nyc = {
       fullName: "New York City",
       mayor: "Bill de Blasio",
       population: 8000000,
       boroughs: 5
      };

nyc -object- S p e c i f i e d

The nyc object has 4 properties seperated by a comma-,
- a fullName property with property-key fullName and it's associated string value of "New York City"
- a mayor property with property-key mayor and it's associated string value of "Bill de Blasio"
- a population property with property-key population and it's associated number value 8000000
- a boroughs property with property-key boroughs and it's associated number value 5

for - in - loop - e x p l a i n e d

With the for-in-loop you have a Method
which will iterate over all properties of a given object.
At each iteration it will assign the property-key as a string
to a variable name of your choice.
Thus for (var x in nyc)
will lead to 4 iteration's
iteration-1 var x = "fullName";
iteration-2 var x = "mayor";
iteration-3 var x = "population";
iteration-4 var x = "boroughs";
As they want you to display the property-key and NOT it's associated VALUE
you would use
console.log( x );

If they wanted you to display the associated VALUE of the propery-key you would use
console.log( nyc[x] );

leonhard.wettengmx.n · 2016-03-10 00:14:07 UTC

@travmoffat87,

+++ friends list and search and for-in explained.
Look here for an explanation
object
function
for-in-loop
list-function
search-function
http://www.codecademy.com/forum_questions/545275fd8c1ccc8e3e000a23#comment-5457b12c9c4e9d87cb00003f

travism87 · 2016-03-11 00:12:53 UTC

@leonhard.wettengmx.n - thank you so much for the awesome in-depth explanations, you're the best!

travism87 · 2016-03-11 21:07:07 UTC

@leonhard.wettengmx.n, I still have one other question:

How does the function search find firstName or lastName, if it's searching for name? Shouldn't name be firstName or lastName instead? i.e.:

Here: var search = function (name) {
And here: if (friends[key].firstName === name)

leonhard.wettengmx.n · 2016-03-11 21:45:00 UTC

@travmoffat87,
Read the function talk post....
name is a PARAMETER, which is used as a VARIABLE in the FUNCTION-BODY

As you call the search function
you will provide an ARGUMENT
which in this case would be a string Value "Steve"

travism87 · 2016-03-11 23:30:59 UTC

Thank you. I will read it again, I must have not picked up on that.

mccbjnn · 2016-03-14 01:18:22 UTC

I thank you as well. I actually printed out some of your explanations and read them through over 2 days just to become comforatble with the vocabulary. Important concepts.