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Essential JavaScript Interview Question 1658482928

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20 views

Essential JavaScript Interview Question 1658482928

Uploaded by

remah.massri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Essential

JavaScript
Interview
Question
What is a potential pitfall with using
typeof bar === "object" to determine if
bar is an object? How can this pitfall be
avoided?
Although typeof bar === "object" is a reliable way of checking
if bar is an object, the surprising gotcha in JavaScript is that
null is also considered an object!

Therefore, the following code will, to the surprise of most


developers, log true (not false) to the console:

var bar = null;


console.log(typeof bar === "object"); // logs true!

As long as one is aware of this, the problem can easily be


avoided by also checking if bar is null:

console.log((bar !== null) && (typeof bar === "object"));


// logs false
To be entirely thorough in our answer, there are two other
things worth noting:

First, the above solution will return false if bar is a function. In


most cases, this is the desired behavior, but in situations where
you want to also return true for functions, you could amend the
above solution to be:

console.log((bar !== null) && ((typeof bar ===


"object") || (typeof bar === "function")));

Second, the above solution will return true if bar is an array


(e.g., if var bar = [];). In most cases, this is the desired behavior,
since arrays are indeed objects, but in situations where you
want to also false for arrays, you could amend the above
solution to be:

console.log((bar !== null) && (typeof bar === "object")


&& (toString.call(bar) !== "[object Array]"));
However, there’s one other alternative that returns false for
nulls, arrays, and functions, but true for objects:

console.log((bar !== null) && (bar.constructor === Object));

Or, if you’re using jQuery:

console.log((bar !== null) && (typeof bar === "object") && (!


$.isArray(bar)));

ES5 makes the array case quite simple, including its own null
check:

console.log(Array.isArray(bar));
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