Is it alright to create another reference to a javascript object just for ease of access

Question

I have a use case where I need to create say two javascript objects & use their properties in one another. eg -

var Object1 = {
 settings: {
 property1: 'someValue',
 property2: 'someValue'
 }
}
var Object2 = {
 foreignProperty: Object1.settings.property1;
}

I wanted to know if its alright to use a reference object for settings if I know that I will be using the settings property a lot. eg-

var Object1Settings,
 Object1 = {
 settings: {
 property1: 'someValue',
 property2: 'someValue'
 }
}
var Object1Settings = Object1.settings;
var Object2 = {
 foreignProperty: Object1Settings.property1;
}

Is this approach acceptable in terms of right ways of coding & performance?

Thanks

• Tomáš Zato: Here's a JSPerf test case with your exact code.
• inf3rno: Why don't just use a variable in your code? var prop = Object1.settings.property1 Your solution does not make sense for me...
• Nitish Dhar: @inf3rno I don't think you understood the question here.. I am doing that because I need to use the settings a lot not just that one property. Refer the answer as well
• inf3rno: Are you splitting up a big config json to smaller config objects? In that case it is okay.
• Nitish Dhar: Yeah for ease of access and more readable code.

Answer 1

Not only it increases readability, but such code also runs way faster.

Generally when programming I believe this is the order of priorities:

1. Readibility
2. CPU performance
3. Saving memory

Based on this you can see, that caching any value is probably a good idea. It costs memory and saves you CPU cycles.

But I hope you do know that changing Object2.foreignProperty will render original Object1.settings.property1 unchanged.

• Mike E: For what it's worth, I ran the tests in 3 browsers on Android.. In Chrome and Opera the cached reference was indeed fastest, but on Dolphin it was not. It was 58% slower than direct access.
• Tomáš Zato: @MikeE Never heard of dolphin. I cannot explain that to you. However, I can suggest these steps for further research: Try the test once more. Don't forget that when processor is overloaded, it slows down the tests too. Second thing is to check Dolphin javascript implementation. They might be using something different than object identifier.
• Mike E: I ran the test multiple times with consistent results, 57-58% slower. I'll look into reporting this to them when I'm at a desk. Also I'll look at the differences between it and the other browsers which were basically identical (Opera and Chrome).
• Tomáš Zato: As of Mozilla Firefox, the results are as anticipated. For completeness, I have also ran the test in Internet Explorer which was no different from the others.
• Nitish Dhar: @TomášZato thanks for the tests. results are as you have mentioned. looks good. thanks for all the help & explanation.