How to check if an object is an array?

Question

I\'m trying to write a function that either accepts a list of strings, or a single string. If it\'s a string, then I want to convert it to an array with just the one item so

Answer 1

Here's my lazy approach:

if (Array.prototype.array_ === undefined) {
  Array.prototype.array_ = true;
}

// ...

var test = [],
    wat = {};

console.log(test.array_ === true); // true
console.log(wat.array_ === true);  // false

I know it's sacrilege to "mess with" the prototype, but it appears to perform significantly better than the recommended toString method.

Note: A pitfall of this approach is that it wont work across iframe boundaries, but for my use case this is not an issue.

Answer 2

A simple function for testing if an input value is an array is the following:

function isArray(value)
{
  return Object.prototype.toString.call(value) === '[object Array]';
}

This works cross browser, and with older browsers. This is pulled from T.J. Crowders' blog post

Answer 3

There's just one line solution for this question

x instanceof Array

where x is the variable it will return true if x is an array and false if it is not.

Answer 4

jQuery also offers an $.isArray() method:

var a = ["A", "AA", "AAA"];

if($.isArray(a)) {
  alert("a is an array!");
} else {
  alert("a is not an array!");
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

Answer 5

This is my attempt to improve on this answer taking into account the comments:

var isArray = myArray && myArray.constructor === Array;

It gets rid of the if/else, and accounts for the possibility of the array being null or undefined

Answer 6

You can try this:

var arr = []; (or) arr = new Array();
var obj = {}; (or) arr = new Object();

arr.constructor.prototype.hasOwnProperty('push') //true

obj.constructor.prototype.hasOwnProperty('push') // false