The usual way to check if the value of a property is the special value undefined, is:
if(o.myProperty === undefined) {
alert("myProperty value is the special value `undefined`");
}
To check if an object does not actually have such a property, and will therefore return undefined by default when you try and access it:
if(!o.hasOwnProperty('myProperty')) {
alert("myProperty does not exist");
}
To check if the value associated with an identifier is the special value undefined, or if that identifier has not been declared. Note: this method is the only way of referring to an undeclared (note: different from having a value of undefined) identifier without an early error:
if(typeof myVariable === 'undefined') {
alert('myVariable is either the special value `undefined`, or it has not been declared');
}
In versions of JavaScript prior to ECMAScript 5, the property named "undefined" on the global object was writeable, and therefore a simple check foo === undefined might behave unexpectedly if it had accidentally been redefined. In modern JavaScript, the property is read-only.
However, in modern JavaScript, "undefined" is not a keyword, and so variables inside functions can be named "undefined" and shadow the global property.
If you are worried about this (unlikely) edge case, you can use the void operator to get at the special undefined value itself:
if(myVariable === void 0) {
alert("myVariable is the special value `undefined`");
}
Native deep cloning
It's called "structured cloning", works experimentally in Node 11 and later, and hopefully will land in browsers. See this answer for more details.
Fast cloning with data loss - JSON.parse/stringify
If you do not use Dates, functions, undefined, Infinity, RegExps, Maps, Sets, Blobs, FileLists, ImageDatas, sparse Arrays, Typed Arrays or other complex types within your object, a very simple one liner to deep clone an object is:
JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(object))
const a = {
string: 'string',
number: 123,
bool: false,
nul: null,
date: new Date(), // stringified
undef: undefined, // lost
inf: Infinity, // forced to 'null'
re: /.*/, // lost
}
console.log(a);
console.log(typeof a.date); // Date object
const clone = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(a));
console.log(clone);
console.log(typeof clone.date); // result of .toISOString()
See Corban's answer for benchmarks.
Reliable cloning using a library
Since cloning objects is not trivial (complex types, circular references, function etc.), most major libraries provide function to clone objects. Don't reinvent the wheel - if you're already using a library, check if it has an object cloning function. For example,
- lodash -
cloneDeep; can be imported separately via the lodash.clonedeep module and is probably your best choice if you're not already using a library that provides a deep cloning function
- AngularJS -
angular.copy
- jQuery -
jQuery.extend(true, { }, oldObject); .clone() only clones DOM elements
- just library -
just-clone; Part of a library of zero-dependency npm modules that do just do one thing.
Guilt-free utilities for every occasion.
ES6 (shallow copy)
For completeness, note that ES6 offers two shallow copy mechanisms: Object.assign() and the spread syntax.
which copies values of all enumerable own properties from one object to another. For example:
var A1 = {a: "2"};
var A2 = Object.assign({}, A1);
var A3 = {...A1}; // Spread Syntax
Best Answer
There is no way to tell whether a variable points to a valid object aside from simply sending it a message and seeing if you crash. Object variables are just pointers. The only way to tell is to use a sentinel value (such as
nil). But that shouldn't generally be a problem. If this is giving you trouble, that's evidence of a flaw in your application's design. There's no reason to have variables hanging around that might be initialized or might not.