Iterating Through an Object Issue

Question

I am confused by the output for iterating through the object shown below. I am confused as to why the for loop I have is not iterating through each object in the array. Instead, it only writes the last object to the document. 
```javascript
var students = [
    {
    name: 'Chris',
    game: 'Sonic 2',
    points: 15000
    },
    {
    name: 'Stephanie',
    game: 'Sonic 3',
    points: 17500
    },
    {
    name: 'Scooter',
    game: 'Angry Birds',
    points: 18500
    },
    {
    name: 'Sammy',
    game: 'Worms 2',
    points: 8500
    },
    {
    name: 'George',
    game: 'Earthworm Jim',
    points: 99300
    }
];
function print(message) {
  var outputDiv = document.getElementById('output');
  outputDiv.innerHTML = message;
}
for (var i = 0; i < students.length; i++) {
    print(students[i].name);
}
```
Output

George

The output for this code confuses me. The for statement should be iterating through every object within the array and displaying all the name properties (Chris, Stephanie, Scooter, Sammy, George). Instead it only displays George.
Would appreciate any clarification as to what is going on here, many thanks.

Marcus Parsons · Accepted Answer

Hey @Chris Feltus (https://teamtreehouse.com/chrisfeltus),
The problem you're experiencing is that each time the iteration completes, you are replacing what was in the outputDiv with the newest print statement.  So, when it gets to the end of the iteration, George is all that remains.
Instead of replacing the content each time, you should instead be adding each additional content to the outputDiv with a += instead of just = like so:
```javascript
        var students = [
    {
    name: 'Chris',
    game: 'Sonic 2',
    points: 15000
    },
    {
    name: 'Stephanie',
    game: 'Sonic 3',
    points: 17500
    },
    {
    name: 'Scooter',
    game: 'Angry Birds',
    points: 18500
    },
    {
    name: 'Sammy',
    game: 'Worms 2',
    points: 8500
    },
    {
    name: 'George',
    game: 'Earthworm Jim',
    points: 99300
    }
];
function print(message) {
  var outputDiv = document.getElementById('output');
//Added += and " " for spacing at the end
//Output will be: Chris Stephanie Scooter Sammy George
  outputDiv.innerHTML += message + " ";
}
for (var i = 0; i < students.length; i++) {
    print(students[i].name);
}
```

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Chris Feltus

Chris Feltus

Iterating Through an Object Issue

1 Answer

Marcus Parsons

Marcus Parsons