Modifying a copy of a JavaScript object is causing the original object to change

Question

I am copying myObj to tempMyObj

var tempMyObj = myObj;

tempMyObj.entity is an array of objects. I am

Answer 1

It is clear that you have some misconceptions of what the statement var tempMyObj = myObj; does.

In JavaScript objects are passed and assigned by reference (more accurately the value of a reference), so tempMyObj and myObj are both references to the same object.

Here is a simplified illustration that may help you visualize what is happening

// [Object1]<--------- myObj

var tempMyObj = myObj;

// [Object1]<--------- myObj
//         ^ 
//         |
//         ----------- tempMyObj

As you can see after the assignment, both references are pointing to the same object.

You need to create a copy if you need to modify one and not the other.

// [Object1]<--------- myObj

const tempMyObj = Object.assign({}, myObj);

// [Object1]<--------- myObj
// [Object2]<--------- tempMyObj

Old Answer:

Here are a couple of other ways of creating a copy of an object

Since you are already using jQuery:

var newObject = jQuery.extend(true, {}, myObj);

With vanilla JavaScript

function clone(obj) {
    if (null == obj || "object" != typeof obj) return obj;
    var copy = obj.constructor();
    for (var attr in obj) {
        if (obj.hasOwnProperty(attr)) copy[attr] = obj[attr];
    }
    return copy;
}

var newObject = clone(myObj);

See here and here