If variable exists.....object vs variable, null vs. undefined

Question

The first part of this script seems to work correctly, it iterates through every document and if the document name matches a particular regex pattern, it it gives it a specific variable to be utilized later in the script.

However, in line 37 of the script when I attempt to us whether or not a variable exists as a condition for an if statement, things don't evaluate true or false as expected.

What am I doing wrong here?

// iterate through all docs assigning variables to templates and art
for (i = 0; i < documents.length; i++){
    var curDoc = app.activeDocument = app.documents;
    var curDocNoExt = curDoc.name.split(".");
    var workingName = curDocNoExt[0];
    if(workingName.match(/^\d{5,6}$/) != null) {  
        var frontArt = app.documents;
        var targetName = frontArt.name
    } else {   
    if(workingName.match(/^\d{5,6}(b))$/) != null) {   
        var backArt = app.documents;
        var backToggle = 1;
    } else {
     if(workingName.match(/^fkeep$/) != null) {  
        var frontTemp = app.documents;
    } else {
     if(workingName.match(/^fxkeep$/) != null) {  
        var frontSquare = app.documents;
    } else {
     if(workingName.match(/^bkeep$/) != null) {  
        var backTemp = app.documents;
    } else {
     if(workingName.match(/^bxkeep$/) != null) {  
        var backSquare = app.documents;
      }
     }   
    }
   }
  }
 } 
}
//use variables to do stuff!
if (backArt != null) {
    app.activeDocument = backTemp;
    var namedBackTemp = backTemp.duplicate(targetName + "B");
}

I have also this on line 37, but they didn't seem to fix things:

if (backArt != 'undefined') {

Kukurykus · Accepted Answer

Isn't there /^\d{5,6}(b))$/ one closing parentheses too many (that before dollar character)?

pixxxelschubser · Answer

Hi squirpy​,you doesn't need the parentheses aroud the "b". But there are some other problems with your code. Please explain exactly what you really want to do.Perahps this snippet could help you a little bit.// do you want to close the document after the loop???// in this case: loop backwards for(i = app.documents.length-1; i >= 0; i--) { var aDoc = app.activeDocument = app.documents; var fileName = aDoc.name; var workingName; if(fileName.match( /(.*)\.([^\.]+$)/ )) { fileName = fileName.match( /(.*)\.([^\.]+$)/ ); } else { fileName = [ fileName, fileName, undefined ]; } workingName = fileName[1]; switch(true){ case (workingName.match(/^\d{5,6}b$/) != null): var backArt = aDoc; // difficult - if more than one file with this name is opened and the document is still opened after this loop var backToggle = 1; break;  case (workingName.match(/^fkeep$/) != null): var frontTemp = aDoc; // IMHO not needed, you can use in the next line aDoc instead var namedFrontTemp = frontTemp.duplicate(workingName + "F"); // difficult - if more than one file with this name is opened and the document is still opened after this loop // Perhaps it could be better to close the frontTemp now //aDoc.close(SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES); break;  // and so on …  default: // all other document names break; }}Have fun

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