The most accurate way to check JS object's type?

Question

The typeof operator doesn\'t really help us to find the real type of an object.

I\'ve already seen the following code :

Object.prototyp         


        

Answer 1

Old question I know. You don't need to convert it. See this function:

function getType( oObj )
{
    if( typeof oObj === "object" )
    {
          return ( oObj === null )?'Null':
          // Check if it is an alien object, for example created as {world:'hello'}
          ( typeof oObj.constructor !== "function" )?'Object':
          // else return object name (string)
          oObj.constructor.name;              
    }   

    // Test simple types (not constructed types)
    return ( typeof oObj === "boolean")?'Boolean':
           ( typeof oObj === "number")?'Number':
           ( typeof oObj === "string")?'String':
           ( typeof oObj === "function")?'Function':false;

}; 

Examples:

function MyObject() {}; // Just for example

console.log( getType( new String( "hello ") )); // String
console.log( getType( new Function() );         // Function
console.log( getType( {} ));                    // Object
console.log( getType( [] ));                    // Array
console.log( getType( new MyObject() ));        // MyObject

var bTest = false,
    uAny,  // Is undefined
    fTest  function() {};

 // Non constructed standard types
console.log( getType( bTest ));                 // Boolean
console.log( getType( 1.00 ));                  // Number
console.log( getType( 2000 ));                  // Number
console.log( getType( 'hello' ));               // String
console.log( getType( "hello" ));               // String
console.log( getType( fTest ));                 // Function
console.log( getType( uAny ));                  // false, cannot produce
                                                // a string

Low cost and simple.

Answer 2

The best way to find out the REAL type of an object (including BOTH the native Object or DataType name (such as String, Date, Number, ..etc) AND the REAL type of an object (even custom ones); is by grabbing the name property of the object prototype's constructor:

Native Type Ex1:

var string1 = "Test";
console.log(string1.__proto__.constructor.name);

displays:

String

Ex2:

var array1 = [];
console.log(array1.__proto__.constructor.name);

displays:

Array

Custom Classes:

function CustomClass(){
  console.log("Custom Class Object Created!");
}
var custom1 = new CustomClass();

console.log(custom1.__proto__.constructor.name);

displays:

CustomClass

Answer 3

I put together a little type check utility inspired by the above correct answers:

thetypeof = function(name) {
        let obj = {};
        obj.object = 'object Object'
        obj.array = 'object Array'
        obj.string = 'object String'
        obj.boolean = 'object Boolean'
        obj.number = 'object Number'
        obj.type = Object.prototype.toString.call(name).slice(1, -1)
        obj.name = Object.prototype.toString.call(name).slice(8, -1)
        obj.is = (ofType) => {
            ofType = ofType.toLowerCase();
            return (obj.type === obj[ofType])? true: false
        }
        obj.isnt = (ofType) => {
            ofType = ofType.toLowerCase();
            return (obj.type !== obj[ofType])? true: false
        }
        obj.error = (ofType) => {
            throw new TypeError(`The type of ${name} is ${obj.name}: `
            +`it should be of type ${ofType}`)
        }
        return obj;
    };

example:

if (thetypeof(prop).isnt('String')) thetypeof(prop).error('String')
if (thetypeof(prop).is('Number')) // do something