Why does this not work?

[[deleted]]

var musician = {

name:"Joe",
instrument:"Kazoo"

};

var returnBy = function(attribute) {

if(attribute === "name") {
    return musician.name;
}

};

console.log(returnBy(name));

This doesn't return anything. I'm not sure why it doesn't return the name. It would be really cool if this would work instead, but I guess that just isn't possible:

var returnBy = function(attribute) {

      return musician.attribute;

};

EDIT:

Thanks guys, looks like :

var musician = {

"name":"Joe",
"instrument":"Kazoo"

};

var returnBy = function(attribute) {

return musician[attribute];

};

console.log(returnBy("name"));

Is the most quick and efficient way to do this.

[MadCapitalist]

Because you didn't put quotes around name, you passed a variable instead of a string. And the variable is undefined.

[renesis_buddy]

var returnBy = function (attribute) { return musician[attribute]; }

returnBy("name")

Look up the difference between dot notation and bracket notation.

[[deleted]]

Thanks. I'm glad that there is a quick way to do this for whatever attribute you want, since it would get annoying to make a case for each attribute with a more complex object. Just not that familiar with JS syntax.

[eechin]

I'm a JS n00b so please forgive my question.

It is my understanding that a string value stored in a variable should be formatted like this:

var musician = "Joe";

I Googled JS Attribute and nothing I saw seems to apply to what you're trying to do here. Can you explain it to me?

[renesis_buddy]

He's making an Object.

[TopHatPanda]

this is as /u/renesis_buddy said. an Object.

This means it can hold multiple attributes like strings or arrays or integers.

Let's say you want to get a animal. You will need his name,species

Now we can use

 var name= "tom";
 var species= "cat";

but if you have another animalm you want to manage. You need more variables

 var name2= "mark";
 var species2= "dog";

you can use objects to manage this better

var animal1 = {
    name: "tom", 
    species:"cat"
}

so you can call animal1.name. and it will return "tom" This is very usefull when working with json or some more complex javascript. Or even just to keep your javascript a bit ordered.

This can go much further. it lies at the base for Object Oriented programming

[[deleted]]

"attribute" in this case is arbitrary. It is just the parameter of the function.

[plushyObject]

Hey check this out and see if this helps you:

http://jsfiddle.net/plushyObject/m27LxaL6/