How to access the first property of a Javascript object?

Question

Is there an elegant way to access the first property of an object...

1. where you don\'t know the name of your properties
2. without using a loop like

Answer 1

You can also do Object.values(example)[0].

Answer 2

No. An object literal, as defined by MDC is:

a list of zero or more pairs of property names and associated values of an object, enclosed in curly braces ({}).

Therefore an object literal is not an array, and you can only access the properties using their explicit name or a for loop using the in keyword.

Answer 3

If you need to access "the first property of an object", it might mean that there is something wrong with your logic. The order of an object's properties should not matter.

Answer 4

The top answer could generate the whole array and then capture from the list. Here is an another effective shortcut

var obj = { first: 'someVal' };
Object.entries(obj)[0][1] // someVal

Answer 5

This has been covered here before.

The concept of first does not apply to object properties, and the order of a for...in loop is not guaranteed by the specs, however in practice it is reliably FIFO except critically for chrome (bug report). Make your decisions accordingly.

Answer 6

we can also do with this approch.

var example = {
  foo1: { /* stuff1 */},
  foo2: { /* stuff2 */},
  foo3: { /* stuff3 */}
}; 
Object.entries(example)[0][1];