All you need to know about JavaScript Objects

Mansi Sharma
4 min readOct 2, 2023

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JavaScript is generally considered an object-oriented language, although there is some controversy over whether this is true, which I will explain below. Essentially, objects are a central aspect of the language and the key to understanding JavaScript coding. Before we discuss objects and their uses, let’s define the characteristics of an object-oriented language.

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Object-Oriented Coding Briefly Defined

An object-oriented language allows object-oriented programming (OOP), or writing code based on objects that interact with each other to provide the end user with the functionality desired in a program. Objects contain data in the form of fields (properties or variables) and code (procedures or methods).

The other two main programming methods are functional programming and procedural programming. Functional programming uses a coding method that evaluates expressions rather than executing commands or program instructions. Procedural programming, on the other hand, is a coding paradigm that focuses on the concept of invoking a procedure or set of commands that must be followed.

Is JavaScript Truly an Object-Oriented Language?

There is some controversy over whether JavaScript is a true object-oriented language or not. It is undeniable that JavaScript relies on coding through the use of objects. However, it also has many aspects of procedural and functional programming.

The unique thing about JavaScript is that it uses prototypes instead of classes for inheritance. It also includes some functional programming methods, such as using functions as real objects that contain properties and methods in themselves. Now let’s see how JavaScript handles objects and what they actually consist of.

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JavaScript Objects As One of Two Main Data Types

Although objects are a very important part of this programming language, they are not the only element that holds it together or allows programmers to interact with the code. Primitives are another important part of the JavaScript language. Unlike objects, they are immutable data and cannot be modified. If you look at the essence of the language, JavaScript can actually be divided into just two data types:

  • Objects
  • Primitive

You can learn more about primitives [here[(/guides/understanding-javascript-primitives-and-their-functionity], but for now, know that they can also be divided into seven variations or types. These primitives are intended for the programmer responsible for knowing things. For example, they may return an unknown or undefined value.

What Exactly Is an Object?

A simple way to analyze what an object is in JavaScript code is to compare an object to what we see around us in the real world. For example, let’s take an apple, because it is an object that we can see around us every day and that we can probably find in our kitchen right now. An apple is an object with several properties that describe its properties. It always has real characteristics, such as being round, but also different characteristics depending on the variety of apples, such as color (they can be red, green or yellow), with or without a stem at one end and a slight curvature. ON the other side.

The DOM or Document Model Object is an important JavaScript object model, sometimes called the most important object in JavaScript. However, it is more of a model than a unique object in itself. When a page loads, the browser creates a DOM of the page on that particular website. An HTML DOM template is created as a tree of various page objects. This includes aspects such as document -> root element -> head and body elements.

Accessing Properties and More for Debugging or Printing

When using the alert or alert(object) command, the output typically displays [Object Object]. Therefore, an object’s content settings are not displayed for debugging or printing (they appear on the console screen). However, there are ways around this problem to access the contents of an object or elements within it for debugging or printing purposes.

Most, if not all, browsers also have their own built-in debugging tools that are worth using. For example, Firefox has Firefox Developer Tools, which replaced Firebug, while Chrome has Chrome DevTools. Below are some general commands that should also work. For simple debugging purposes, this warning function should generally work:

JavaScript Alert(Object.toSouce())

In our example below, we will use fruit as the object we want to examine because it contains more variables than the apple example we used above. So we can use apple as a type of fruit or as a property of fruits in general, with other fruits being separate properties. Remember that we can name the objects whatever we want and store the JavaScript code in their location.

JavaScript Alert(fruit.toSouce());

The toSource() method means retrieving a source code object. Newer browsers also allow this command to pass the object’s contents to a debug console. You can also use a DOM inspection tool. Below are two access methods: the first goes to the directory, and the second goes into debug mode to access the contents:

JavaScript Console.dir(fruit)
JavaScript Console.debug(fruit);

In addition to using debuggers, another efficient way to access elements of an object is to use a foreach loop in a printObject function, which displays a text dialog box called alert() function on the screen in which properties and values ​​are displayed. The object. The alert() function can also display an object on the screen by doing the following:

Javascript alert(“myObject is “ + fruit.toSource());

The toSource() method returns a text string that represents the source code of the object. For JavaScript object notation (JSON), you can use the following alert() method with fruit, again as an example object in our case:

Javascript alert( JSON.stringify(fruit) );Or:alert(JSON.parse(fruit). );

Conclusion

Objects are an essential aspect of JavaScript, although you may have noticed that the language goes much deeper than this aspect. Includes primitives, other data types, variants, etc. However, one of the crucial aspects of JavaScript programming is objects.

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Mansi Sharma

Hi, I'm Mansi Sharma, B2B SaaS Front-End Developer with expertise in UX Prompt Design and DesignOps. https://lushaseex.com/4/6301786