javascript tutorial - [Solved-5 Solutions] Object comparison in javascript - javascript - java script - javascript array

What is the best way to compare objects in JavaScript ?

Unfortunately there is no perfect way, unless we use _proto_ recursively and access all non-enumerable properties, but this works in Firefox only. So the best We can do is to guess usage scenarios.

1) Fast and limited.

Works when we have simple JSON-style objects without methods and DOM nodes inside:

 JSON.stringify(obj1) === JSON.stringify(obj2) 

The ORDER of the properties IS IMPORTANT, so this method will return false for following objects:

x = {a: 1, b: 2};
 y = {b: 2, a: 1};

2) Slow and more generic.

Compares objects without digging into prototypes, then compares properties' projections recursively, and also compares constructors. This is almost correct algorithm:

function deepCompare () {
  var i, l, leftChain, rightChain;

  function compare2Objects (x, y) {
    var p;

    // remember that NaN === NaN returns false
    // and isNaN(undefined) returns true
    if (isNaN(x) && isNaN(y) && typeof x === 'number' && typeof y === 'number') {
         return true;
    }

    // Compare primitives and functions.     
    // Check if both arguments link to the same object.
    // Especially useful on the step where we compare prototypes
    if (x === y) {
        return true;
    }

    // Works in case when functions are created in constructor.
    // Comparing dates is a common scenario. Another built-ins?
    // We can even handle functions passed across iframes
    if ((typeof x === 'function' && typeof y === 'function') ||
       (x instanceof Date && y instanceof Date) ||
       (x instanceof RegExp && y instanceof RegExp) ||
       (x instanceof String && y instanceof String) ||
       (x instanceof Number && y instanceof Number)) {
        return x.toString() === y.toString();
    }

    // At last checking prototypes as good as we can
    if (!(x instanceof Object && y instanceof Object)) {
        return false;
    }

    if (x.isPrototypeOf(y) || y.isPrototypeOf(x)) {
        return false;
    }

    if (x.constructor !== y.constructor) {
        return false;
    }

    if (x.prototype !== y.prototype) {
        return false;
    }

    // Check for infinitive linking loops
    if (leftChain.indexOf(x) > -1 || rightChain.indexOf(y) > -1) {
         return false;
    }

    // Quick checking of one object being a subset of another.
    // todo: cache the structure of arguments[0] for performance
    for (p in y) {
        if (y.hasOwnProperty(p) !== x.hasOwnProperty(p)) {
            return false;
        }
        else if (typeof y[p] !== typeof x[p]) {
            return false;
        }
    }

    for (p in x) {
        if (y.hasOwnProperty(p) !== x.hasOwnProperty(p)) {
            return false;
        }
        else if (typeof y[p] !== typeof x[p]) {
            return false;
        }

        switch (typeof (x[p])) {
            case 'object':
            case 'function':

                leftChain.push(x);
                rightChain.push(y);

                if (!compare2Objects (x[p], y[p])) {
                    return false;
                }

                leftChain.pop();
                rightChain.pop();
                break;

            default:
                if (x[p] !== y[p]) {
                    return false;
                }
                break;
        }
    }

    return true;
  }

  if (arguments.length < 1) {
    return true; //Die silently? Don't know how to handle such case, please help...
    // throw "Need two or more arguments to compare";
  }

  for (we = 1, l = arguments.length; we < l; i++) {

      leftChain = []; //Todo: this can be cached
      rightChain = [];

      if (!compare2Objects(arguments[0], arguments[i])) {
          return false;
      }
  }

  return true;
}

Known issues (well, they have very low priority, probably you'll never notice them):

Here is my commented solution (gory details after the code):

Object.equals = function( x, y ) {
  if ( x === y ) return true;
    // if both x and y are null or undefined and exactly the same

  if ( ! ( x instanceof Object ) || ! ( y instanceof Object ) ) return false;
    // if they are not strictly equal, they both need to be Objects

  if ( x.constructor !== y.constructor ) return false;
    // they must have the exact same prototype chain, the closest we can do is
    // test there constructor.

  for ( var p in x ) {
    if ( ! x.hasOwnProperty( p ) ) continue;
      // other properties were tested using x.constructor === y.constructor

    if ( ! y.hasOwnProperty( p ) ) return false;
      // allows to compare x[ p ] and y[ p ] when set to undefined

    if ( x[ p ] === y[ p ] ) continue;
      // if they have the same strict value or identity then they are equal

    if ( typeof( x[ p ] ) !== "object" ) return false;
      // Numbers, Strings, Functions, Booleans must be strictly equal

    if ( ! Object.equals( x[ p ],  y[ p ] ) ) return false;
      // Objects and Arrays must be tested recursively
  }

  for ( p in y ) {
    if ( y.hasOwnProperty( p ) && ! x.hasOwnProperty( p ) ) return false;
      // allows x[ p ] to be set to undefined
  }
  return true;
}

Certainly not the only way - we could prototype a method (against Object here but We certainly wouldn't suggest using Object for live code) to replicate C#/Java style comparison methods. Edit, since a general example seems to be expected:

Object.prototype.equals = function(x)
{
    for(p in this)
    {
        switch(typeof(this[p]))
        {
            case 'object':
                if (!this[p].equals(x[p])) { return false }; break;
            case 'function':
                if (typeof(x[p])=='undefined' || (p != 'equals' && this[p].toString() != x[p].toString())) { return false; }; break;
            default:
                if (this[p] != x[p]) { return false; }
        }
    }

    for(p in x)
    {
        if(typeof(this[p])=='undefined') {return false;}
    }

    return true;
}

Note that testing methods with toString() is absolutely not good enough but a method which would be acceptable is very hard because of the problem of whitespace having meaning or not, never mind synonym methods and methods producing the same result with different implementations. And the problems of prototyping against Object in general.

	Utils.compareObjects = function(o1, o2){
    for(var p in o1){
        if(o1.hasOwnProperty(p)){
            if(o1[p] !== o2[p]){
                return false;
            }
        }
    }
    for(var p in o2){
        if(o2.hasOwnProperty(p)){
            if(o1[p] !== o2[p]){
                return false;
            }
        }
    }
    return true;
};

We wrote this piece of code for object comparison, and it seems to work. check the assertions:

function countProps(obj) {
    var count = 0;
    for (k in obj) {
        if (obj.hasOwnProperty(k)) {
            count++;
        }
    }
    return count;
};

function objectEquals(v1, v2) {

    if (typeof(v1) !== typeof(v2)) {
        return false;
    }

    if (typeof(v1) === "function") {
        return v1.toString() === v2.toString();
    }

    if (v1 instanceof Object && v2 instanceof Object) {
        if (countProps(v1) !== countProps(v2)) {
            return false;
        }
        var r = true;
        for (k in v1) {
            r = objectEquals(v1[k], v2[k]);
            if (!r) {
                return false;
            }
        }
        return true;
    } else {
        return v1 === v2;
    }