Javascript: Safely reading a nested property

In some templating frameworks it can be really annoying reading a nested property of a JS object as it can of mean chaining a heap of null checks together....

for instance if I need to access a nested property 'to' in 'email.addresses.to' safely it means having to do something like:

if(email && (adresses = email.addresses)) {
  //print addresses.to
}

This is verbose and annoying. I needed a function that would return the nested value, or simply return an empty string if any property in the chain was null or undefined

i.e.

safeRead(email, 'addresses', 'to');

I also wanted property chains can be as long or short as I'd like.... ie.:

safeRead(my, 'very', 'deeply', 'nested', 'property');

The finished product:

	//
	// Usage... for a nested structure
	// var test = {
	// nested: {
	// value: 'Read Correctly'
	// }
	// };
	// safeRead(test, 'nested', 'value'); // returns 'Read Correctly'
	// safeRead(test, 'missing', 'value'); // returns ''
	//
	var safeRead = function() {
	var current, formatProperty, obj, prop, props, val, _i, _len;
	obj = arguments[0], props = 2 <= arguments.length ? [].slice.call(arguments, 1) : [];
	read = function(obj, prop) {
	if ((obj != null ? obj[prop] : void 0) == null) {
	return;
	}
	return obj[prop];
	};
	current = obj;
	for (_i = 0, _len = props.length; _i < _len; _i++) {
	prop = props[_i];
	if (val = read(current, prop)) {
	current = val;
	} else {
	return '';
	}
	}
	return current;
	};

view raw safeRead.js hosted with ❤ by GitHub