Is it possible to destructure instance/member variables in a JavaScript constructor?

Question

Is it possible to use destructuring assignment in a JavaScript class\' constructor to assign the instance variables similar to how you can do it to normal variables?

The

Answer 1

In addition to Nils´s answer. It also works with object spread (...)

class Foo {

  constructor(options = {}) {
    ({
      one: this.one,
      two: this.two,
      ...this.rest
    } = options);
  }
}

let foo = new Foo({one: 1,two: 2,three: 3,four: 4});

console.log(foo.one);  // 1
console.log(foo.two);  // 2
console.log(foo.rest); // {three: 3, four: 4}

... and/or custom settters for further processing

class Foo {

    constructor(options = {}) {
        ({
            one: this.one,
            two: this.two,
            ...this.rest
        } = options);
    }
   
    set rest(options = {}) {
        ({
          three: this.three,
          ...this.more
        } = options);
    }
}

let foo = new Foo({one: 1,two: 2,three: 3,four: 4});

console.log(foo.one);   // 1
console.log(foo.two);   // 2
console.log(foo.three); // 3
console.log(foo.more);  // {four: 4}

Answer 2

There are multiple ways of doing this. The first one uses destructuring only and assigns the properties of options to properties on this:

class Foo {
  constructor(options) {
    ({one: this.one, two: this.two} = options);
    // Do something else with the other options here
  }
}

The extra parentheses are needed, otherwise the JS engine might mistake the { ... } for an object literal or a block statement.

The second one uses Object.assign and destructuring:

class Foo {
  constructor(options) {
    const {one, two} = options;
    Object.assign(this, {one, two});
    // Do something else with the other options here
  }
}

If you want to apply all your options to the instance, you could use Object.assign without destructuring:

class Foo {
  constructor(options) {
    Object.assign(this, options);
  }
}