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Unexpected Behavior with JavaScript's Object.freeze() in Nested Objects

πŸ‘€ Views: 37 πŸ’¬ Answers: 1 πŸ“… Created: 2025-06-03
javascript object.freeze immutability JavaScript

Could someone explain I'm maintaining legacy code that I'm having trouble with I'm not sure how to approach I'm stuck on something that should probably be simple..... I'm experiencing unexpected behavior when using `Object.freeze()` on a nested object in JavaScript. I have a configuration object that contains a nested structure, and I'm trying to make it immutable using `Object.freeze()`. However, when I freeze the top-level object, I find that I can still modify the properties of the nested objects, which leads to inconsistent states in my application. Here’s a simplified version of my code: ```javascript const config = { api: { url: 'https://api.example.com', timeout: 5000 }, featureFlags: { newFeature: true } }; Object.freeze(config); config.api.url = 'https://api.changed.com'; // This line seems to have no effect config.featureFlags.newFeature = false; // Should not be allowed! ``` When I log `config.api.url`, it still prints `https://api.example.com`, but `config.featureFlags.newFeature` is now `false`, which I didn't expect. I read that `Object.freeze()` only applies to the first level of an object, but I thought that meant it would prevent modifications to the properties of the object itself, not nested objects. Is there a way to make the entire structure immutable, including all nested properties? I’ve also tried using a deep clone method before freezing, but that feels inefficient. Any suggestions on how to handle this without losing performance would be greatly appreciated. I'm using Node.js v16.13.0 and this is part of a larger application where maintaining the integrity of the configuration is crucial. My development environment is Ubuntu. What's the best practice here? I'm working on a service that needs to handle this. I'd really appreciate any guidance on this. For context: I'm using Javascript on macOS. The stack includes Javascript and several other technologies. What are your experiences with this? Thanks for taking the time to read this!