underscore.js mixin for plucking nested properties

_.deep.js

_.mixin({

  // Get/set the value of a nested property
  deep: function (obj, key, value) {

    var keys = key.replace(/\[(["']?)([^\1]+?)\1?\]/g, '.$2').replace(/^\./, '').split('.'),
        root,
        i = 0,
        n = keys.length;

    // Set deep value
    if (arguments.length > 2) {

      root = obj;
      n--;

      while (i < n) {
        key = keys[i++];
        obj = obj[key] = _.isObject(obj[key]) ? obj[key] : {};
      }

      obj[keys[i]] = value;

      value = root;

    // Get deep value
    } else {
      while ((obj = obj[keys[i++]]) != null && i < n) {};
      value = i < n ? void 0 : obj;
    }

    return value;
  }

});

// Usage:
//
// var obj = {
//   a: {
//     b: {
//       c: {
//         d: ['e', 'f', 'g']
//       }
//     }
//   }
// };
//
// Get deep value
// _.deep(obj, 'a.b.c.d[2]'); // 'g'
//
// Set deep value
// _.deep(obj, 'a.b.c.d[2]', 'george');
//
// _.deep(obj, 'a.b.c.d[2]'); // 'george'

_.pluckDeep.js

_.mixin({
  pluckDeep: function (obj, key) {
    return _.map(obj, function (value) { return _.deep(value, key); });
  }
});

// Usage:
//
// var arr = [{
//   deeply: {
//     nested: 'foo'
//   }
// }, {
//   deeply: {
//     nested: 'bar'
//   }
// }];
// 
// _.pluckDeep(arr, 'deeply.nested'); // ['foo', 'bar']

_.unpick.js

_.mixin({

 // Return a copy of an object containing all but the blacklisted properties.
  unpick: function (obj) {
    obj || (obj = {});    
    return _.pick(obj, _.difference(_.keys(obj), _.flatten(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1))));
  }

});

I wrote these functions before I found this but I will remember these for next time!

Is this in any git repo? It is nice functionality and could just fit in a bower package..

Time saved, cheers Furf.

Fantastic! Very elegant. Thanks.

see also https://github.com/chaijs/pathval and Ember's getPath / setPath

for deepPick see also https://gist.github.com/onexdrk/0b0b84fe6f0c8f0a895b

What if the array index was blank. How could you do something like this?

var obj = {
   a: {
     b: {
       c: {
         d: ['e', 'f', 'g']
       }
     }
   }
 };
_.deep(obj, 'a.b.c.d[]'); // "['e', 'f', 'g']"

Why won't underscore implement this?

Worth noting, you can use native Underscore (>= v1.8.0) to achieve this by using _.property along with _.compose. Example below:

var nested = {
   colors: {
     red: '#ff0000',
     green: '#008000',
     blue: '#0000FF'
   }
}

var getGreen = _.compose(_.property('green'), _.property('colors'));
console.log({normal: nested.colors.green, underscore: getGreen(nested)})
//==> Object {normal: "#008000", underscore: "#008000"}

Definitely not the most palatable way to do it...

You could put this concept into a mixin easily though:

_.mixin({
  /* usage: _.nestedProperty('colors', 'green') */
  nestedProperty: function(/*args*/) {
    var props = _.toArray(arguments);
    // Reverse b/c compose operates right to left, but usage is left to right
    // Map result is [_.property(argN), .... _.property(arg2), _.property(arg1)]
    return _.compose.apply(null, props.reverse().map(_.property) );
});

It seems to have issues when you go too deep like

//Define X
let x = { test1 : { test2: { test3: { test4 : 'Hello World' } } } };
_.deep(x, 'test1.test2.test3.test4') // This will work but now lets make it to where test 3 doesn't exist

x = { test1 : { test2: {  } };
_.deep(x, 'test1.test2.test3.test4') // This will throw an error on lookup which i can understand since this also has the ability to set but i thought i would bring this up

See also https://github.com/documentcloud/underscore-contrib/blob/master/underscore.object.selectors.js#L79