Profile Lookup problem

1

Hi guys! I was wondering why this code doesn’t work:


//Setup
var contacts = [
    {
        "firstName": "Akira",
        "lastName": "Laine",
        "number": "0543236543",
        "likes": ["Pizza", "Coding", "Brownie Points"]
    },
    {
        "firstName": "Harry",
        "lastName": "Potter",
        "number": "0994372684",
        "likes": ["Hogwarts", "Magic", "Hagrid"]
    },
    {
        "firstName": "Sherlock",
        "lastName": "Holmes",
        "number": "0487345643",
        "likes": ["Intriguing Cases", "Violin"]
    },
    {
        "firstName": "Kristian",
        "lastName": "Vos",
        "number": "unknown",
        "likes": ["Javascript", "Gaming", "Foxes"]
    }
];


function lookUpProfile(firstName, prop) {
// Only change code below this line
for (var x = 0; x < contacts.length; x++) {
  if (contacts[x].hasOwnProperty(firstName)) { // this is what's different from the correct code
    if (contacts[x].hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
      return contacts[x][prop];
    } else { 
      return "No such property";
   }
  }  
} 
return "No such contact";
  
// Only change code above this line
}

// Change these values to test your function
lookUpProfile("Harry", "likes");

I know the correct code is supposed to be (contacts[x].firstName === firstName) but I can’t figure out how they are different.

2

contacts[x].hasOwnProperty(firstName) this will check if contacts[x] has a property of firstName. Which all of the objects in the contacts array have. For example {
“firstName”: “Akira” <—
To understand the correct code I would like to point to something first:
function lookUpProfile(firstName, prop) { <— firstName is what the function is called with as a first argument, in this case lookUpProfile(“Harry”, “likes”); firstName becomes “Harry”.
(contacts[x].firstName === firstName) so here we check if contacts[x].firstName is “Harry”.

TL;DR
(contacts[x].hasOwnProperty(firstName) checks if contacts[x] has a property of firstName
(contacts[x].firstName === firstName) checks if contacts[x].firstName is firstName <-- firstName here being what is passed to the function; in this case “Harry”.

1 Like
3

Oh, now I get the difference! Thanks for that!