How do I get the name of an object's type in JavaScript?

Question

Is there a JavaScript equivalent of Java's class.getName()?

Answer 1

Here is a hack that will do what you need - be aware that it modifies the Object's prototype, something people frown upon (usually for good reason)

Object.prototype.getName = function() { 
   var funcNameRegex = /function (.{1,})\(/;
   var results = (funcNameRegex).exec((this).constructor.toString());
   return (results && results.length > 1) ? results[1] : "";
};

Now, all of your objects will have the function, getName(), that will return the name of the constructor as a string. I have tested this in FF3 and IE7, I can't speak for other implementations.

If you don't want to do that, here is a discussion on the various ways of determining types in JavaScript...

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I recently updated this to be a bit more exhaustive, though it is hardly that. Corrections welcome...

Using the constructor property...

Every object has a value for its constructor property, but depending on how that object was constructed as well as what you want to do with that value, it may or may not be useful.

Generally speaking, you can use the constructor property to test the type of the object like so:

var myArray = [1,2,3];
(myArray.constructor == Array); // true

So, that works well enough for most needs. That said...

Caveats

An example where it isn't as obvious is where you use prototypical inheritance:

function a() { this.a = 1;}
function b() { this.b = 2; }
b.prototype = new a(); // b inherits from a

Things now don't work as you might expect them to:

var f = new b(); // create new object with the b constructor
(f.constructor == b); // false
(f.constructor == a); // true

So, you might get unexpected results if the object your testing has a different object set as its prototype. There are ways around this outside the scope of this discussion.

There are other uses for the constructor property, some of them interesting, others not so much; for now we will not delve into those uses since it isn't relevant to this discussion.

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Using the instanceof operator...

The instanceof operator is a clean way of testing object type as well, but has its own potential issues, just like the constructor property.

var myArray = [1,2,3];
(myArray instanceof Array); // true
(myArray instanceof Object); // true

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Using the name property of the constructor property...

Does NOT work in IE

Using myObjectInstance.constructor.name will give you a string containing the name of the constructor function used, but is subject to the caveats about the constructor property that were mentioned earlier.

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Caveats for all...

All of these are subject to one potential problem, and that is the question of how the object in question was constructed. Here are various ways of building objects and the values that the different methods of type checking will return:

// using a named function:
function Foo() { this.a = 1; }
var obj = new Foo();
(obj instanceof Object);          // true
(obj instanceof Foo);             // true
(obj.constructor == Foo);         // true
(obj.constructor.name == "Foo");  // true

// let's add some prototypical inheritance
function Bar() { this.b = 2; }
Foo.prototype = new Bar();
obj = new Foo();
(obj instanceof Object);          // true
(obj instanceof Foo);             // true
(obj.constructor == Foo);         // false
(obj.constructor.name == "Foo");  // false


// using an anonymous function:
obj = new (function() { this.a = 1; })();
(obj instanceof Object);              // true
(obj.constructor == obj.constructor); // true
(obj.constructor.name == "");         // true


// using an anonymous function assigned to a variable
var Foo = function() { this.a = 1; };
obj = new Foo();
(obj instanceof Object);      // true
(obj instanceof Foo);         // true
(obj.constructor == Foo);     // true
(obj.constructor.name == ""); // true


// using object literal syntax
obj = { foo : 1 };
(obj instanceof Object);            // true
(obj.constructor == Object);        // true
(obj.constructor.name == "Object"); // true

While not all permutations are present in this set of examples, hopefully there are enough to provide you with an idea about how messy things might get depending on your needs. Don't assume anything, if you don't understand exactly what you are after, you may end up with code breaking where you don't expect it to because of a lack of grokking the subtleties.

NOTE:

Discussion of the typeof operator may appear to be a glaring omission, but it really isn't useful in helping to identify whether an object is a given type, since it is very simplistic. Understanding where typeof is useful is important, but I don't currently feel that it is terribly relevant to this discussion. My mind is open to change though. :)

Answer 2

You can use the instanceof operator to see if an object is an instance of another, but since there are no classes, you can't get a class name.

Answer 3

Jason Bunting's answer gave me enough of a clue to find what I needed:

<<Object instance>>.constructor.name

So, for example, in the following piece of code:

function MyObject() {}
var myInstance = new MyObject();

myInstance.constructor.name would return "MyObject".

Answer 4

The closest you can get is typeof, but it only returns "object" for any sort of custom type. For those, see Jason Bunting.

Edit, Jason's deleted his post for some reason, so just use Object's constructor property.

Answer 5

You can use the "instanceof" operator to determine if an object is an instance of a certain class or not. If you do not know the name of an object's type, you can use its constructor property. The constructor property of objects, is a reference to the function that is used to initialize them. Example:

function Circle (x,y,radius) {
    this._x = x;
    this._y = y;
    this._radius = raduius;
}
var c1 = new Circle(10,20,5);

Now c1.constructor is a reference to the Circle() function. You can alsow use the typeof operator, but the typeof operator shows limited information. One solution is to use the toString() method of the Object global object. For example if you have an object, say myObject, you can use the toString() method of the global Object to determine the type of the class of myObject. Use this:

Object.prototype.toString.apply(myObject);

Answer 6

this.constructor is not a valid object in IE8, so every implementation like Object.prototype.getName is not valid.

Answer 7

DO NOT USE THE CONSTRUCTOR PROPERTY.

Read THIS first.

The correct code is:

function get_type(thing){
    if(thing===null)return "[object Null]"; // special case
    return Object.prototype.toString.call(thing);
}

// example results:
get_type(null)                    - [object Null]
get_type(window)                  - [object Window]
get_type([])                      - [object Array]
get_type(['1'])                   - [object Array]
get_type({})                      - [object Object]
get_type(document)                - [object HTMLDocument]
get_type(document.getElementById) - [object Function]

NB: According to specs, this function is the most reliable between different browsers.