Checking if a key exists in a JavaScript object?

Question

How do I check if a particular key exists in a JavaScript object or array?

If a key doesn\'t exist, and I try to access it, will it return false? Or throw an error?<

Answer 1

Three ways to check if a property is present in a javascript object:

1. !!obj.theProperty
   Will convert value to bool. returns true for all but the false value
2. 'theProperty' in obj
   Will return true if the property exists, no matter its value (even empty)
3. obj.hasOwnProperty('theProperty')
   Does not check the prototype chain. (since all objects have the toString method, 1 and 2 will return true on it, while 3 can return false on it.)

Reference:

http://book.mixu.net/node/ch5.html

Answer 2

Here's a helper function I find quite useful

This keyExists(key, search) can be used to easily lookup a key within objects or arrays!

Just pass it the key you want to find, and search obj (the object or array) you want to find it in.

function keyExists(key, search) {
        if (!search || (search.constructor !== Array && search.constructor !== Object)) {
            return false;
        }
        for (var i = 0; i < search.length; i++) {
            if (search[i] === key) {
                return true;
            }
        }
        return key in search;
    }

// How to use it:
// Searching for keys in Arrays
console.log(keyExists('apple', ['apple', 'banana', 'orange'])); // true
console.log(keyExists('fruit', ['apple', 'banana', 'orange'])); // false

// Searching for keys in Objects
console.log(keyExists('age', {'name': 'Bill', 'age': 29 })); // true
console.log(keyExists('title', {'name': 'Jason', 'age': 29 })); // false

It's been pretty reliable and works well cross-browser.

Answer 3

We can use - hasOwnProperty.call(obj, key);

The underscore.js way -

if(_.has(this.options, 'login')){
  //key 'login' exists in this.options 
}

_.has = function(obj, key) {
  return hasOwnProperty.call(obj, key);
};

Answer 4

If you want to check for any key at any depth on an object and account for falsey values consider this line for a utility function:

var keyExistsOn = (o, k) => k.split(".").reduce((a, c) => a.hasOwnProperty(c) ? a[c] || 1 : false, Object.assign({}, o)) === false ? false : true;

Results

var obj = {
    test: "",
    locals: {
        test: "",
        test2: false,
        test3: NaN,
        test4: 0,
        test5: undefined,
        auth: {
            user: "hw"
        }
    }
}

keyExistsOn(obj, "")
> false
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.test")
> true
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.test2")
> true
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.test3")
> true
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.test4")
> true
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.test5")
> true
keyExistsOn(obj, "sdsdf")
false
keyExistsOn(obj, "sdsdf.rtsd")
false
keyExistsOn(obj, "sdsdf.234d")
false
keyExistsOn(obj, "2134.sdsdf.234d")
false
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals")
true
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.")
false
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.auth")
true
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.autht")
false
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.auth.")
false
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.auth.user")
true
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.auth.userr")
false
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.auth.user.")
false
keyExistsOn(obj, "locals.auth.user")
true

Also see this NPM package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/has-deep-value

Answer 5

a fast and easy solution is to convert your object to json then you will be able to do this easy task

    const allowed = {
        '/login' : '',
        '/register': '',
        '/resetpsw': ''
    };
    console.log('/login' in allowed); //returns true

if you use an array the object key will be converted to integers ex 0,1,2,3 etc, therefore, it will always be false

Answer 6

New awesome solution with JavaScript Destructuring:

let obj = {
    "key1": "value1",
    "key2": "value2",
    "key3": "value3",
};

let {key1, key2, key3, key4} = obj;

// key1 = "value1"
// key2 = "value2"
// key3 = "value3"
// key4 = undefined

// Can easily use `if` here on key4
if(!key4) { console.log("key not present"); } // Key not present

Do check other use of JavaScript Destructuring