Listening for variable changes in JavaScript

Question

Is it possible to have an event in JS that fires when the value of a certain variable changes? JQuery is accepted.

Answer 1

Yes, this is now completely possible!

I know this is an old thread but now this effect is possible using accessors (getters and setters): https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Working_with_Objects#Defining_getters_and_setters

You can define an object like this, in which aInternal represents the field a:

x = {
  aInternal: 10,
  aListener: function(val) {},
  set a(val) {
    this.aInternal = val;
    this.aListener(val);
  },
  get a() {
    return this.aInternal;
  },
  registerListener: function(listener) {
    this.aListener = listener;
  }
}

Then you can register a listener using the following:

x.registerListener(function(val) {
  alert("Someone changed the value of x.a to " + val);
});

So whenever anything changes the value of x.a, the listener function will be fired. Running the following line will bring the alert popup:

x.a = 42;

See an example here: https://jsfiddle.net/5o1wf1bn/1/

You can also user an array of listeners instead of a single listener slot, but I wanted to give you the simplest possible example.