Prototype Linkage Helper Function - egnomerator/misc GitHub Wiki

Objects and Prototypes

• This is a link to another page within this github wiki which uses the getObjectInfo() function discussed in this wiki page

Built In JavaScript Properties

• This is a link to another page within this github wiki

In all the code examples within the Objects and Prototypes wiki page, each example will end with commented output--this output will be the result of running the below helper function on an object. The built-in JavaScript properties accessed in this function expose internal prototype linkages (and can be used to implement inheritance in JavaScript). These JavaScript properties constitute the prototype chain. The reason for printing these values is to demonstrate how JavaScript prototype linkage works and what linkage will occur depending on the approach used for creating objects. Kyle Simpson explains this linkage information very well in his course.

Browser developer tools typically expose this information in some fashion as a built-in browser console UI feature (e.g. traversable node structure), but these log statements can still be helpful, especially in a text-only console environment.

function getObjectInfo(o){
    console.log("Below is \"meta info\" of this object \"o\" ...");
    console.log("o:");
    console.log(o);
    console.log("o.prototype");
    console.log(o.prototype);
    console.log("Object.getPrototypeOf(o)");
    console.log(Object.getPrototypeOf(o));
    console.log("o.constructor");
    console.log(o.constructor);
}