How to get a JavaScript object's class?

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I created a JavaScript object, but how I can determine the class of that object?

I want something similar to Java's .getClass() method.

20 Answers

There's no exact counterpart to Java's getClass() in JavaScript. Mostly that's due to JavaScript being a prototype-based language, as opposed to Java being a class-based one.

Depending on what you need getClass() for, there are several options in JavaScript:

A few examples:

function Foo() {}
var foo = new Foo();

typeof Foo;             // == "function"
typeof foo;             // == "object"

foo instanceof Foo;     // == true
foo.constructor.name;   // == "Foo"
Foo.name                // == "Foo"    

Foo.prototype.isPrototypeOf(foo);   // == true

Foo.prototype.bar = function (x) {return x+x;};
foo.bar(21);            // == 42

Note: if you are compiling your code with Uglify it will change non-global class names. To prevent this, Uglify has a --mangle param that you can set to false is using gulp or grunt.

This getNativeClass() function returns "undefined" for undefined values and "null" for null.
For all other values, the CLASSNAME-part is extracted from [object CLASSNAME], which is the result of using Object.prototype.toString.call(value).

getAnyClass() behaves the same as getNativeClass(), but also supports custom constructors

function getNativeClass(obj) {
  if (typeof obj === "undefined") return "undefined";
  if (obj === null) return "null";
  return Object.prototype.toString.call(obj).match(/^\[object\s(.*)\]$/)[1];
}

function getAnyClass(obj) {
  if (typeof obj === "undefined") return "undefined";
  if (obj === null) return "null";
  return obj.constructor.name;
}

getClass("")   === "String";
getClass(true) === "Boolean";
getClass(0)    === "Number";
getClass([])   === "Array";
getClass({})   === "Object";
getClass(null) === "null";

getAnyClass(new (function Foo(){})) === "Foo";
getAnyClass(new class Foo{}) === "Foo";

// etc...

We can read Class's name of an instance by just doing 'instance.constructor.name' like in this example:

class Person {
  type = "developer";
}
let p = new Person();

p.constructor.name // Person

You can get a reference to the constructor function which created the object by using the constructor property:

function MyObject(){
}

var obj = new MyObject();
obj.constructor; // MyObject

If you need to confirm the type of an object at runtime you can use the instanceof operator:

obj instanceof MyObject // true

In javascript, there are no classes, but I think that you want the constructor name and obj.constructor.toString() will tell you what you need.

If you need to not only GET class but also EXTEND it from having just an instance, write:

let's have

 class A{ 
   constructor(name){ 
     this.name = name
   }
 };

 const a1 = new A('hello a1');

so to extend A having the instance only use:

const a2 = new (Object.getPrototypeOf(a1)).constructor('hello from a2')
// the analog of const a2 = new A()

console.log(a2.name)//'hello from a2'

getClass() function using constructor.prototype.name

I found a way to access the class that is much cleaner than some of the solutions above; here it is.

function getClass(obj) {

   // if the type is not an object return the type
   if((let type = typeof obj) !== 'object') return type; 
    
   //otherwise, access the class using obj.constructor.name
   else return obj.constructor.name;   
}

How it works

the constructor has a property called name accessing that will give you the class name.

cleaner version of the code:

function getClass(obj) {

   // if the type is not an object return the type
   let type = typeof obj
   if((type !== 'object')) { 
      return type; 
   } else { //otherwise, access the class using obj.constructor.name
      return obj.constructor.name; 
   }   
}

I suggest using Object.prototype.constructor.name:

Object.defineProperty(Object.prototype, "getClass", {
    value: function() {
      return this.constructor.name;
    }
});

var x = new DOMParser();
console.log(x.getClass()); // `DOMParser'

var y = new Error("");
console.log(y.getClass()); // `Error'

You can also do something like this

 class Hello {
     constructor(){
     }
    }
    
      function isClass (func) {
        return typeof func === 'function' && /^class\s/.test(Function.prototype.toString.call(func))
    }
    
   console.log(isClass(Hello))

This will tell you if the input is class or not

Javascript is a class-less languages: there are no classes that defines the behaviour of a class statically as in Java. JavaScript uses prototypes instead of classes for defining object properties, including methods, and inheritance. It is possible to simulate many class-based features with prototypes in JavaScript.

There is one another technique to identify your class You can store ref to your class in instance like below.

class MyClass {
    static myStaticProperty = 'default';
    constructor() {
        this.__class__ = new.target;
        this.showStaticProperty = function() {
            console.log(this.__class__.myStaticProperty);
        }
    }
}

class MyChildClass extends MyClass {
    static myStaticProperty = 'custom';
}

let myClass = new MyClass();
let child = new MyChildClass();

myClass.showStaticProperty(); // default
child.showStaticProperty(); // custom

myClass.__class__ === MyClass; // true
child.__class__ === MyClass; // false
child.__class__ === MyChildClass; // true
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