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hasOwnProperty vs in

Written byPhuoc Nguyen
Category
JavaScript
Created
08 Jul, 2020
Last updated
17 Mar, 2021
Contributors
pentzzsolt
The `in` operator and `hasOwnProperty` function are the common ways to check if an objects contains a particular key.
const person = {
name: 'Foo',
};

'name' in person; // true
person.hasOwnProperty('name'); // true

Differences

  1. For inherited properties, `in` will return `true`. `hasOwnProperty`, as the name implies, will check if a property is owned by itself, and ignores the inherited properties.
    Let's reuse the person object from the previous example. Since it's a JavaScript object which has built-in properties such as `constructor`, `__proto__`, the following check return true:
    'constructor' in person; // true
    '__proto__' in person; // true
    'toString' in person; // true
    While `hasOwnProperty` returns `false` when checking against these properties and methods:
    person.hasOwnProperty('constructor'); // false
    person.hasOwnProperty('__proto__'); // false
    person.hasOwnProperty('toString'); // false
  2. For the `get` and `set` methods of a class, `hasOwnProperty` also returns `false`.
    For example, we have a simple class representing triangles:
    class Triangle {
    get vertices() {
    return 3;
    }
    }

    // Create new instance
    const triangle = new Triangle();
    Despite the fact that `vertices` is the property of `triangle`:
    triangle.vertices; // 3
    'vertices' in triangle; // true
    `hasOwnProperty` still ignores it:
    triangle.hasOwnProperty('vertices'); // false

Good practice

In order to check the existence of a property, use `hasOwnProperty`. Use `in` to check the existence of a method.

See also

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Phước Nguyễn