Javascript Associative Arrays

Question

Hello all,
It seems to me that this should work but I cant see what exactly is the problem.

The error Im receiving is "DDROA is not defined"

Could anyone help enlighten me.

var DDROA = {
    AllowedRoutes : {
        AR0 : {text : 'SomeText', value : 'SomeValue'},
        AR1 : {text : 'SomeText2', value : 'SomeValue2'}
    },
    RouteContext : {
        RC0 : {text : 'None', value : '0',
            AllowedRoutes : new Array(
                DDROA.AllowedRoutes.AR0  // An error occurs here
            )
        }
     }
}

EDIT

For Slack's Comment Can you help explain why I must finish declaring the DDROA.AllowedRoutes and then make another statement to add DDROA.RouteContext in a separate stament. Essentially you are telling me I must

var DDROA = {AllowedRoutes : {}};

then

DDROA.RouteContext = {};

Why the two separate statements. I do things like

var Utilities = {
  TextBased : {
    someFunction : function(){ 
      //do stuff 
    },
    someFunction2 : function() {
      Utilities.TextBased.someFunction();
    }
  }
};

What is the difference? It seems to me I should get the same error?

Answer 1

The reason your second example works is because you're defining a function, and so the code within it isn't executed until you invoke the function, at which point your object is fully instantiated and the reference to the child object is valid. In your first example the object doesn't yet exist when you attempt to access it.