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

With the help of getter and setter, you can define a JavaScript class that does such a thing.

First, we define our class called MonitoredVariable:

class MonitoredVariable {
  constructor(initialValue) {
    this._innerValue = initialValue;
    this.beforeSet = (newValue, oldValue) => {};
    this.beforeChange = (newValue, oldValue) => {};
    this.afterChange = (newValue, oldValue) => {};
    this.afterSet = (newValue, oldValue) => {};
  }

  set val(newValue) {
    const oldValue = this._innerValue;
    // newValue, oldValue may be the same
    this.beforeSet(newValue, oldValue);
    if (oldValue !== newValue) {
      this.beforeChange(newValue, oldValue);
      this._innerValue = newValue;
      this.afterChange(newValue, oldValue);
    }
    // newValue, oldValue may be the same
    this.afterSet(newValue, oldValue);
  }

  get val() {
    return this._innerValue;
  }
}

Assume that we want to listen for money changes, let's create an instance of MonitoredVariable with initial money 0:

const money = new MonitoredVariable(0);

Then we could get or set its value using money.val:

console.log(money.val); // Get its value
money.val = 2; // Set its value

Since we have not defined any listeners for it, nothing special happens after money.val changes to 2.

Now let's define some listeners. We have four listeners available: beforeSet, beforeChange, afterChange, afterSet. The following will happen sequentially when you use money.val = newValue to change variable's value:

1. money.beforeSet(newValue, oldValue);
2. money.beforeChange(newValue, oldValue); (Will be skipped if its value not changed)
3. money.val = newValue;
4. money.afterChange(newValue, oldValue); (Will be skipped if its value not changed)
5. money.afterSet(newValue, oldValue);

Now we define afterChange listener which be triggered only after money.val has changed (while afterSet will be triggered even if the new value is the same as the old one):

money.afterChange = (newValue, oldValue) => {
  console.log(`Money has been changed from ${oldValue} to ${newValue}`);
};

Now set a new value 3 and see what happens:

money.val = 3;

You will see the following in the console:

Money has been changed from 2 to 3

For full code, see https://gist.github.com/yusanshi/65745acd23c8587236c50e54f25731ab.