Bug updating global arrays

General
1

I've been hitting my head against a certain code behavior which I believe`I've captured in the following flow.
I'm trying to do something quite simple.
I have two global arrays (flow arrays): current_array and last_array
I want to be able to update the current_array one element at a time, and at certain times, I would like to copy the current_array to the last_array.

This works fine when I update the entire array like this:

flow.set("current_array", [1,2,3,4,5,6]);

but it fails (sometimes) when I update it like this:

var current_array = flow.get("current_array");
current_array[0] = 500;
flow.set("current_array", current_array);

It only fails after I have copied a current_array to the last_array. Almost always immediately after I have done so. It's as if, updating the current_array also updates last_array, or that by updating current_array, it triggers the function containing the "set last_array to current_array". If I comment out the "set last_array to current_array", it doesn't happen, but also the code stops working. I don't understand why the "set last_array to current_array" triggers without input, only when I update a global variable, sometimes.

I am happy to explain the order of operations in order to make the bug happen, if it is unclear.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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2

Kristin,

if you edit your post and put 3 backticks ``` before and after your code it will get formatted correctly.

1 Like
3

HI, indeed, this unwanted behavior will happen when you try to copy an array to another array using the assignment operator (or using the flow.set like you did). In JavaScript assigning current_array to last_array will make last_array to point to the same elements of current_array, i.e, changing current_array will affect last_array and vice_versa.

var current_array = flow.get("current_array");
flow.set("last_array", current_array);
msg.payload = "set last array to current array";
return msg;

Try to use this statement to copy current_array to last_array:

last_array = [...current_array];

Only then you save last_array to the flow context

flow.set("last_array", last_array);

edit:

Therefore this is how your last function will looks like:

var current_array = flow.get("current_array");
last_array = [...current_array];
flow.set("last_array", last_array);
msg.payload = "set last array to current array";
return msg;
3 Likes
4

Alas, everything in the world makes sense again.
thank you!

1 Like
5

For those who want to understand better what it means passing by reference and the shalow copy solution from this post here is a good video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duyshh9Fs1U

2 Likes
6

You saved my day. Thank you for this link.

1 Like