Getting the first index of an object

Question

Consider:

var object = {
  foo: {},
  bar: {},
  baz: {}
}

How would I do this:

var first = object[0];
console.log(first);

Obviously, that doesn’t work because the first index is named foo, not 0.

console.log(object['foo']);

works, but I don’t know it’s named foo. It could be named anything. I just want the first.

Answer 1

Just for fun this works in JS 1.8.5

var obj = {a: 1, b: 2, c: 3};
Object.keys(obj)[0]; // "a"

This matches the same order that you would see doing

for (o in obj) { ... }

Answer 2

If you want something concise try:

for (first in obj) break;

alert(first);

wrapped as a function:

function first(obj) {
    for (var a in obj) return a;
}

Answer 3

they're not really ordered, but you can do:

var first;
for (var i in obj) {
    if (obj.hasOwnProperty(i) && typeof(i) !== 'function') {
        first = obj[i];
        break;
    }
}

the .hasOwnProperty() is important to ignore prototyped objects.

Answer 4

This will not give you the first one as javascript objects are unordered, however this is fine in some cases.

myObject[Object.keys(myObject)[0]]

Answer 5

If the order of the objects is significant, you should revise your JSON schema to store the objects in an array:

[
    {"name":"foo", ...},
    {"name":"bar", ...},
    {"name":"baz", ...}
]

or maybe:

[
    ["foo", {}],
    ["bar", {}],
    ["baz", {}]
]

As Ben Alpert points out, properties of Javascript objects are unordered, and your code is broken if you expect them to enumerate in the same order that they are specified in the object literal—there is no "first" property.

Answer 6

for first key of object you can use

console.log(Object.keys(object)[0]);//print key's name

for value

console.log(object[Object.keys(object)[0]]);//print key's value

Answer 7

There is no way to get the first element, seeing as "hashes" (objects) in JavaScript have unordered properties. Your best bet is to store the keys in an array:

var keys = ["foo", "bar", "baz"];

Then use that to get the proper value:

object[keys[0]]

Answer 8

ES6

const [first] = Object.keys(obj)

Answer 9

Using underscore you can use _.pairs to get the first object entry as a key value pair as follows:

_.pairs(obj)[0]

Then the key would be available with a further [0] subscript, the value with [1]

Answer 10

I had the same problem yesterday. I solved it like this:

var obj = {
        foo:{},
        bar:{},
        baz:{}
    },
   first = null,
   key = null;
for (var key in obj) {
    first = obj[key];
    if(typeof(first) !== 'function') {
        break;
    }
}
// first is the first enumerated property, and key it's corresponding key.

Not the most elegant solution, and I am pretty sure that it may yield different results in different browsers (i.e. the specs says that enumeration is not required to enumerate the properties in the same order as they were defined). However, I only had a single property in my object so that was a non-issue. I just needed the first key.

Answer 11

You could do something like this:

var object = {
    foo:{a:'first'},
    bar:{},
    baz:{}
}


function getAttributeByIndex(obj, index){
  var i = 0;
  for (var attr in obj){
    if (index === i){
      return obj[attr];
    }
    i++;
  }
  return null;
}


var first = getAttributeByIndex(object, 0); // returns the value of the
                                            // first (0 index) attribute
                                            // of the object ( {a:'first'} )

Answer 12

To get the first key of your object

const myObject = {
   'foo1': { name: 'myNam1' },
   'foo2': { name: 'myNam2' }
}

const result = Object.keys(myObject)[0];

// result will return 'foo1'

Answer 13

Based on CMS answer. I don't get the value directly, instead I take the key at its index and use this to get the value:

Object.keyAt = function(obj, index) {
    var i = 0;
    for (var key in obj) {
        if ((index || 0) === i++) return key;
    }
};


var obj = {
    foo: '1st',
    bar: '2nd',
    baz: '3rd'
};

var key = Object.keyAt(obj, 1);
var val = obj[key];

console.log(key); // => 'bar'
console.log(val); // => '2nd'

Answer 14

My solution:

Object.prototype.__index = function(index)
{
    var i = -1;
    for (var key in this)
    {
        if (this.hasOwnProperty(key) && typeof(this[key])!=='function')
            ++i;
        if (i >= index)
            return this[key];
    }
    return null;
}
aObj = {'jack':3, 'peter':4, '5':'col', 'kk':function(){alert('hell');}, 'till':'ding'};
alert(aObj.__index(4));