TypeError: setting getter-only property "x"
The JavaScript strict mode-only exception "setting getter-only property" occurs when there is an attempt to set a new value to a property for which only a getter is specified, or when setting a private property that similarly only has a getter defined.
Message
TypeError: Cannot set property x of #<Object> which has only a getter (V8-based) TypeError: '#x' was defined without a setter (V8-based) TypeError: setting getter-only property "x" (Firefox) TypeError: Attempted to assign to readonly property. (Safari) TypeError: Trying to access an undefined private setter (Safari)
Error type
TypeError
in strict mode only.
What went wrong?
There is an attempt to set a new value to a property for which only a getter is specified.
While this will be silently ignored in non-strict mode, it will throw a
TypeError
in strict mode. Classes are always in strict mode, so assigning to a getter-only private property always throws this error.
Examples
Property with no setter
The example below shows how to set a getter for a property.
It doesn't specify a setter, so a
TypeError
will be thrown upon trying to set the temperature
property to 30
. For more details see also the
Object.defineProperty()
page.
"use strict";
function Archiver() {
const temperature = null;
Object.defineProperty(this, "temperature", {
get() {
console.log("get!");
return temperature;
},
});
}
const arc = new Archiver();
arc.temperature; // 'get!'
arc.temperature = 30;
// TypeError: setting getter-only property "temperature"
To fix this error, you will either need to remove the arc.temperature = 30
line, which attempts to
set the temperature property, or you will need to implement a setter for it, for
example like this:
"use strict";
function Archiver() {
let temperature = null;
const archive = [];
Object.defineProperty(this, "temperature", {
get() {
console.log("get!");
return temperature;
},
set(value) {
temperature = value;
archive.push({ val: temperature });
},
});
this.getArchive = function () {
return archive;
};
}
const arc = new Archiver();
arc.temperature; // 'get!'
arc.temperature = 11;
arc.temperature = 13;
arc.getArchive(); // [{ val: 11 }, { val: 13 }]