If ECMAScript 5 support is available, you can use Object.keys():

function isEmpty(obj) {
    return Object.keys(obj).length === 0;
}

For ES3 and older, there's no easy way to do this. You'll have to loop over the properties explicitly:

function isEmpty(obj) {
    for(var prop in obj) {
        if(obj.hasOwnProperty(prop))
            return false;
    }

    return true;
}

Performance

Today 2020.01.17, I performed tests on macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 on Chrome v79.0, Safari v13.0.4, and Firefox v72.0; for the chosen solutions.

Conclusions

• Solutions based on for-in (A, J, L, M) are fastest
• Solutions based on JSON.stringify (B, K) are slow
• Surprisingly, the solution based on Object (N) is also slow
• NOTE: This table does not match the photo below.

Details

There are 15 solutions presented in the snippet below. If you want to run a performance test on your machine, click HERE. This link was updated 2021.07.08, but tests originally were performed here - and results in the table above came from there (but now it looks like that service no longer works).

var log = (s, f) => console.log(`${s} --> {}:${f({})}  {k:2}:${f({ k: 2 })}`);

function A(obj) {
  for (var i in obj) return false;
  return true;
}

function B(obj) {
  return JSON.stringify(obj) === "{}";
}

function C(obj) {
  return Object.keys(obj).length === 0;
}

function D(obj) {
  return Object.entries(obj).length === 0;
}

function E(obj) {
  return Object.getOwnPropertyNames(obj).length === 0;
}

function F(obj) {
  return Object.keys(obj).length === 0 && obj.constructor === Object;
}

function G(obj) {
  return typeof obj === "undefined" || !Boolean(Object.keys(obj)[0]);
}

function H(obj) {
  return Object.entries(obj).length === 0 && obj.constructor === Object;
}

function I(obj) {
  return Object.values(obj).every((val) => typeof val === "undefined");
}

function J(obj) {
  for (const key in obj) {
    if (hasOwnProperty.call(obj, key)) {
      return false;
    }
  }
  return true;
}

function K(obj) {
  for (var prop in obj) {
    if (obj.hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
      return false;
    }
  }
  return JSON.stringify(obj) === JSON.stringify({});
}

function L(obj) {
  for (var prop in obj) {
    if (obj.hasOwnProperty(prop)) return false;
  }
  return true;
}

function M(obj) {
  for (var k in obj) {
    if (obj.hasOwnProperty(k)) {
      return false;
    }
  }
  return true;
}

function N(obj) {
  return (
    Object.getOwnPropertyNames(obj).length === 0 &&
    Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(obj).length === 0 &&
    Object.getPrototypeOf(obj) === Object.prototype
  );
}

function O(obj) {
  return !(Object.getOwnPropertyNames !== undefined
    ? Object.getOwnPropertyNames(obj).length !== 0
    : (function () {
        for (var key in obj) break;
        return key !== null && key !== undefined;
      })());
}

log("A", A);
log("B", B);
log("C", C);
log("D", D);
log("E", E);
log("F", F);
log("G", G);
log("H", H);
log("I", I);
log("J", J);
log("K", K);
log("L", L);
log("M", M);
log("N", N);
log("O", O);

if(Object.getOwnPropertyNames(obj).length === 0){
  //is empty
}

see http://bencollier.net/2011/04/javascript-is-an-object-empty/

1. Just a workaround. Can your server generate some special property in case of no data?

   For example:

   var a = {empty:true};
   

   Then you can easily check it in your AJAX callback code.

2. Another way to check it:

   if (a.toSource() === "({})")  // then 'a' is empty
   

EDIT: If you use any JSON library (f.e. JSON.js) then you may try JSON.encode() function and test the result against empty value string.

function isEmpty(obj) {
  for(var i in obj) { return false; }
  return true;
}

jQuery have special function isEmptyObject() for this case:

jQuery.isEmptyObject({}) // true
jQuery.isEmptyObject({ foo: "bar" }) // false

Read more on http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.isEmptyObject/

1. Using Object.keys

Object.keys will return an Array, which contains the property names of the object. If the length of the array is 0, then we know that the object is empty.

function isEmpty(obj) {
    return Object.keys(obj).length === 0 && empty.constructor === Object;
}

We can also check this using Object.values and Object.entries. This is typically the easiest way to determine if an object is empty.

2. Looping over object properties with for…in

The for…in statement will loop through the enumerable property of object.

function isEmpty(obj) {
    for(var prop in obj) {
        if(obj.hasOwnProperty(prop))
            return false;
    }

    return true;
}

In the above code, we will loop through object properties and if an object has at least one property, then it will enter the loop and return false. If the object doesn’t have any properties then it will return true.

#3. Using JSON.stringify If we stringify the object and the result is simply an opening and closing bracket, we know the object is empty.

function isEmptyObject(obj){
    return JSON.stringify(obj) === '{}';
}

4. Using jQuery

jQuery.isEmptyObject(obj); 

5. Using Underscore and Lodash

_.isEmpty(obj);

Resource

In addition to Thevs answer:

var o = {};
alert($.toJSON(o)=='{}'); // true

var o = {a:1};
alert($.toJSON(o)=='{}'); // false

it's jquery + jquery.json

To really accept ONLY {}, the best way to do it in Javascript using Lodash is:

_.isEmpty(value) && _.isPlainObject(value)

Pure Vanilla Javascript, and full backward compatibility

function isObjectDefined (Obj) {
  if (Obj === null || typeof Obj !== 'object' ||
    Object.prototype.toString.call(Obj) === '[object Array]') {
    return false
  } else {
    for (var prop in Obj) {
      if (Obj.hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
        return true
      }
    }
    return JSON.stringify(Obj) !== JSON.stringify({})
  }
}

console.log(isObjectDefined()) // false
console.log(isObjectDefined('')) // false
console.log(isObjectDefined(1)) // false
console.log(isObjectDefined('string')) // false
console.log(isObjectDefined(NaN)) // false
console.log(isObjectDefined(null)) // false
console.log(isObjectDefined({})) // false
console.log(isObjectDefined([])) // false
console.log(isObjectDefined({a: ''})) // true

IsEmpty Object, unexpectedly lost its meaning i.e.: it's programming semantics, when our famous guru from Yahoo introduced the customized non-enumerable Object properties to ECMA and they got accepted.

[ If you don't like history - feel free to skip right to the working code ]

I'm seeing lots of good answers \ solutions to this question \ problem. However, grabbing the most recent extensions to ECMA Script is not the honest way to go. We used to hold back the Web back in the day to keep Netscape 4.x, and Netscape based pages work and projects alive, which (by the way) were extremely primitive backwards and idiosyncratic, refusing to use new W3C standards and propositions [ which were quite revolutionary for that time and coder friendly ] while now being brutal against our own legacy.

Killing Internet Explorer 11 is plain wrong! Yes, some old warriors that infiltrated Microsoft remaining dormant since the "Cold War" era, agreed to it - for all the wrong reasons. - But that doesn't make it right!

Making use, of a newly introduced method\property in your answers and handing it over as a discovery ("that was always there but we didn't notice it"), rather than a new invention (for what it really is), is somewhat 'green' and harmful. I used to make such mistakes some 20 years ago when I still couldn't tell what's already in there and treated everything I could find a reference for, as a common working solution...

Backward compatibility is important !

We just don't know it yet. That's the reason I got the need to share my 'centuries old' generic solution which remains backward and forward compatible to the unforeseen future.

There were lots of attacks on the in operator but I think the guys doing that have finally come to senses and really started to understand and appreciate a true Dynamic Type Language such as JavaScript and its beautiful nature.

My methods aim to be simple and nuclear and for reasons mentioned above, I don't call it "empty" because the meaning of that word is no longer accurate. Is Enumerable, seems to be the word with the exact meaning.

function isEnum( x ) { for( var p in x )return!0; return!1 };

Some use cases:

isEnum({1:0})
true

isEnum({})
false

isEnum(null)
false

Thanks for reading!

Best one-liner solution I could find (updated):

isEmpty = obj => !Object.values(obj).filter(e => typeof e !== 'undefined').length;

console.log(isEmpty({}))                                        // true
console.log(isEmpty({a: undefined, b: undefined}))              // true
console.log(isEmpty({a: undefined, b: void 1024, c: void 0}))   // true

console.log(isEmpty({a: [undefined, undefined]}))               // false
console.log(isEmpty({a: 1}))                                    // false
console.log(isEmpty({a: ''}))                                   // false
console.log(isEmpty({a: null, b: undefined}))                   // false

It's weird that I haven't encountered a solution that compares the object's values as opposed to the existence of any entry (maybe I missed it among the many given solutions).
I would like to cover the case where an object is considered empty if all its values are undefined:

    const isObjectEmpty = obj => Object.values(obj).every(val => typeof val === "undefined")

    console.log(isObjectEmpty({}))                                 // true
    console.log(isObjectEmpty({ foo: undefined, bar: undefined })) // true
    console.log(isObjectEmpty({ foo: false,     bar: null }))      // false

Example usage

Let's say, for the sake of example, you have a function (paintOnCanvas) that destructs values from its argument (x, y and size). If all of them are undefined, they are to be left out of the resulting set of options. If not they are not, all of them are included.

function paintOnCanvas ({ brush, x, y, size }) {
  const baseOptions = { brush }
  const areaOptions = { x, y, size }
  const options = isObjectEmpty(areaOptions) ? baseOptions : { ...baseOptions, areaOptions }
  // ...
}

I know this doesn't answer 100% your question, but I have faced similar issues before and here's how I use to solve them:

I have an API that may return an empty object. Because I know what fields to expect from the API, I only check if any of the required fields are present or not.

For example:

API returns {} or {agentID: '1234' (required), address: '1234 lane' (opt),...}. In my calling function, I'll only check

if(response.data && response.data.agentID) { 
  do something with my agentID 
} else { 
  is empty response
}

This way I don't need to use those expensive methods to check if an object is empty. The object will be empty for my calling function if it doesn't have the agentID field.

We can check with vanilla js with handling null or undefined check also as follows,

function isEmptyObject(obj) {
  return !!obj && Object.keys(obj).length === 0 && obj.constructor === Object;
}

//tests

isEmptyObject(new Boolean());  // false 
isEmptyObject(new Array());    // false 
isEmptyObject(new RegExp());   // false 
isEmptyObject(new String());   // false 
isEmptyObject(new Number());   // false 
isEmptyObject(new Function()); // false 
isEmptyObject(new Date());     // false
isEmptyObject(null);          // false
isEmptyObject(undefined);     // false
isEmptyObject({});            // true

I liked this one I came up with, with the help of some other answers here. Thought I'd share it.

Object.defineProperty(Object.prototype, 'isEmpty', {
    get() {
        for(var p in this) {
            if (this.hasOwnProperty(p)) {return false}
        }
        return true;
    }
});


let users = {};
let colors = {primary: 'red'};
let sizes = {sm: 100, md: 200, lg: 300};

console.log(
'\nusers =', users,
'\nusers.isEmpty ==> ' + users.isEmpty,
'\n\n-------------\n',
'\ncolors =', colors,
'\ncolors.isEmpty ==> ' + colors.isEmpty,
'\n\n-------------\n',
'\nsizes =', sizes,
'\nsizes.isEmpty ==> ' + sizes.isEmpty,
'\n',
''
);

export function isObjectEmpty(obj) {
  return (
    Object.keys(obj).length === 0 &&
    Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(obj).length === 0 &&
    obj.constructor === Object
  );
}

This include checking for objects containing symbol properties.

Object.keys does not retrieve symbol properties.

The new Way to check value is if(Object.entries(this.props.myarticle).length===0){ }

here myarticles is object

Mostly what you want to know is, if the object has properties before using it. So instead of asking isEmpty and then always check the negation like if(!isEmpty(obj)) you can just test if the object is not null and has properties instead

export function hasProperties(obj): boolean {
  return obj && obj.constructor === Object && Object.keys(obj).length >= 1;
}

isEmptyObject(value) {
  return value && value.constructor === Object && Object.keys(value).length === 0;
}

The above code is enough to check the empty-ness of an Object.

A very good article is written at how-to-check-if-object-is-empty

This is what I came up with, to tell if there are any non-null values in the object.

function isEmpty(obj: Object): Boolean {
    for (const prop in obj) {
        if (obj.hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
            if (obj[prop] instanceof Object) {
                const rtn = this.isEmpty(obj[prop]);
                if (rtn === false) {
                  return false;
                }
            } else if (obj[prop] || obj[prop] === false) {
                return false;
            }
        }
    }
    return true;
}

That's similar way of how it gets checked in lodash source for object :

const isEmpty = value => {
  for (const key in value) {
    if (hasOwnProperty.call(value, key)) {
      return false
    }
  }
  return true;
}

But there are many other ways to do that.

isEmpty for value any type

/* eslint-disable no-nested-ternary */

const isEmpty = value => {
  switch (typeof value) {
    case 'undefined':
      return true;
    case 'object':
      return value === null
        ? true
        : Array.isArray(value)
        ? !value.length
        : Object.entries(value).length === 0 && value.constructor === Object;
    case 'string':
      return !value.length;
    default:
      return false;
  }
};

    let jsObject = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj), (key, value) => {
                if (value === null ||
                    value === '' ||
                    (value.constructor === Object && Object.entries(value).length === 0) ||
                    (value.constructor === Array && value.length === 0)) {
                    return undefined
                }
                return value
            })

This will filter out all the invalid fields recursively.

You can use lodash library instead of making a plain JS function.

_.isEmpty({}) // true

This will check array and object either they do have values and return boolean.

Here is a fast, simple, function:

function isEmptyFunction () {
  for (const i in this) return false
  return true
}

Implemented as a getter:

Object.defineProperty(Object.prototype, 'isEmpty', { get: isEmptyFunction })

console.log({}.isEmpty) // true

Implemented as a separate function:

const isEmpty = Function.prototype.call.bind(isEmptyFunction)

console.log(isEmpty({})) // true

Try Destructuring

const a = {};
const { b } = a;
const emptryOrNot = (b) ? 'not Empty' : 'empty';
console.log(emptryOrNot)

Perfect and failsafe solution

I think the first accepted solution works in most cases but is not Failsafe.

The better and failsafe solution will be.

function isEmptyObject() { 
  return toString.call(obj) === "[object Object]" 
  && Object.keys(obj).length === 0;
}

or in ES6/7

const isEmptyObject = () => toString.call(obj) === "[object Object]" 
  && Object.keys(obj).length === 0;

With this approach if the obj is set to undefined or null, the code does not break. and return null.