How to differentiate between DOM object and JavaScript object

Question

I tried to find out which is a dom object or which is a javascript object

var domObj =document.getElementById('lga');

typeof domObj

"object"

var jsObj = {name:"BP"}

typeof jsObj

"object"

Then how do I identify which is a dom object or js object.

DOM objects are javascript objects if accessing them via javascript. — Brandon
– Brandon, Commented Dec 11, 2013 at 18:27
so what you really want to know is "is some object a DOM object or not a DOM object?" — Brandon
– Brandon, Commented Dec 11, 2013 at 18:27
jQuery only does else if ( selector.nodeType ). Of course you will get false positives if a normal object has such a property. — Felix Kling
– Felix Kling, Commented Dec 11, 2013 at 18:29

maček · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-11 18:54:15Z

4

You can use

domObj instanceof HTMLElement; // true

It will be false for

jsObj instanceof HTMLElement; // false

In an if it would look like this

if (domObj instanceof HTMLElement) {
  // ...
}
else {
  // ...
}

You can learn more about your objects by inspecting their constructor property

document.body.constructor; // function HTMLBodyElement() { [native code] }

edited Dec 11, 2013 at 18:54

answered Dec 11, 2013 at 18:29

maček

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2 Comments

psquared Over a year ago

Good idea. Instead of HTMLElement, you could compare to Node if you were also interested in TextNodes, CommentNodes, etc.

jforjs Over a year ago

domObj instanceof HTMLElement; this works fine in Chrome but not in IE8, domObj instanceof Object; This returns true in Chrome but false in IE8. Is there any specific way to do it crossbrowser.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:29:16Z

0

I think this should be of help Javascript isDOM - How do you check if a Javascript Object is a DOM Object

This gives a cross-browser way to handle the requirement, at the same time explaining the underlying implementation of common browsers.
I think this should answer your question on how to identify an object of type HTMLElement.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:29

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Dec 12, 2013 at 12:16

B.D.

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