Get the name of an object's type

Question

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

Answer 1

Using Object.prototype.toString

It turns out, as this post details, you can use Object.prototype.toString - the low level and generic implementation of toString - to get the type for all built-in types

Object.prototype.toString.call('abc') // [object String]
Object.prototype.toString.call(/abc/) // [object RegExp]
Object.prototype.toString.call([1,2,3]) // [object Array]

One could write a short helper function such as

function type(obj){
    return Object.prototype.toString.call(obj]).match(/\s\w+/)[0].trim()
}

return [object String] as String
return [object Number] as Number
return [object Object] as Object
return [object Undefined] as Undefined
return [object Function] as Function