19: Data Objects

JavaScript contains the interesting design decision to confuse the word "object" with two different uses. In one way an "object" is a container for data that is key=value style. You might find this form of data in a database table, a spreadsheet, or even if you look at your Contacts on your phone. The other use for "object" is in "object-oriented programming (OOP)", which is a much more complicated topic that we'll cover later in the book. In OOP you are using a combination of objects, classes, and functions to constrain your programming style so that your code can work better with other people's code.

In this exercise we'll focus on objects as a data type (or container), and I'll call them "data objects" to differentiate them from "objects" in object-oriented programming. There really is no difference between a "data object" and an "OOP object". They are the exact same thing but used in different ways. Using an object to store key=value data is the first simplest usage of an object. Then when you learn OOP you'll learn how to add to the "data object" concept for object-oriented programming.