Get The Name Property Of A Variable

I was wondering if it's possible to get the name of a variables in javascript or JQuery. Suppose that I declare a variable in javascript like: var customerNr = '456910'; If a func

Solution 1:

That is simply not possible!

The passed parameter doesn't even have to have a name. It could be a return value of a function or a raw literal (like "string" or 3).

Solution 2:

No, this is not possible. Only values are transferred for primitive data types, not references, so how would you know what the "name" of the variable is? For example:

var customerNr="456910";
var customerNrAfterProcessing=customerNr;
getNameOfVariable(customerNrAfterProcessing);

Would it return customerNrAfterProcessing or customerNr?

However, you can imitate this behavior with objects.

var variableName = someMethodThatDeterminesVariableNameOrJustAConstantIfYouPrefer();
var myVariables={};
var myVariables[variableName]={};
myVariables[variableName].value="456910";
myVariables[variableName].variableName=variableName;

functiongetNameOfVariable(someVariable){
    return someVariable.variableName;
}
getNameOfVariable(myVariables[variableName]);

Obviously, this amounts to a lot more work than just using the variableName variable directly, but it could be necessary in some more complicated situations.

See working with objects in JS reference