kindof

Kindof.js

Kindof.js provides a single kindof function that does what you'd expect from typeof — gives you the proper semantic type regardless if the variable was a primitive literal ("Hello"), a boxed object (new String("Hello")) or came from another execution context (e.g. an array from another <iframe>).

Tour

When and why should you use kindof over typeof?

• When you need a type check that returns "null" given the null value.
  You might remember, JavaScript's typeof says null is an object.
• When you want to handle both literal primitives 42 and objects new Number(42) (for robustness) the same way.
  A single kindof(num) == "number" check makes that easy.
  Be sure to compare with == to allow for coercion in that case.
• When there's a chance you might get an object from another execution context.
  In the browser that might mean an object from another <frame>.
  Different execution contexts have different built-in class instances, so you can't do obj instanceof Date safely.

Kindof.js supports all ECMAScript built-in types and classes: undefined, null, Boolean, Number, String, RegExp, Date, Array, Function and plain old Object. Others, e.g. Math and JSON, are considered just objects. In general, objects that behave like value objects (numbers, dates etc.) or proper arrays have a kind other than object.

Please see the table below for the full list of kinds.

Installing

Note: Kindof.js follows semantic versioning.

Installing for the browser

Take the kindof.js file and source it at will.

Installing on Node

Install with npm install kindof.
And require with var kindof = require("kindof").

Using

Pass any object to kindof and compare its output to what you expect:

kindof("Hello") // => "string"
kindof(new String("Hello")) // => "string"

A switch statement might help:

switch (kindof(obj)) {
  case "null":   this.name = "Alfred"; break
  case "string": this.name = obj; break
  case "number": this.age = obj; break
  default: throw new TypeError("Pardon, sir, came upon an unexpected type.")
}

Kinds

The pattern is simple — all built-in objects that behave like value objects (numbers, strings, dates etc.) or are real arrays are said to be of a kind other than object. The arguments object, however, is not a proper array, so it therefore is an object.

Value	Kindof
undefined	undefined
null	null
true	boolean
false	boolean
new Boolean(true)	boolean
42	number
new Number(42)	number
NaN	number
Infinity	number
"Hello"	string
new String("Hello")	string
/.*/	regexp
new RegExp(".*")	regexp
new Date	date
[42, 69]	array
function() {}	function
{}	object
arguments	object
new MyClass	object
new Error	object
Math	object
JSON	object

Subclassed objects, such as subclassed arrays, are considered to be object unless their internal [[Class]] property remains that of the original. For ways to subclass properly, please see further reading below.

Further Reading

• The typeof operator in ECMAScript 5.1.
• The typeof operator as implemented by Firefox.
• Article on subclassing Array by Juriy Zaytsev.

License

Kindof.js is released under a Lesser GNU Affero General Public License, which in summary means:

• You can use this program for no cost.
• You can use this program for both personal and commercial reasons.
• You do not have to share your own program's code which uses this program.
• You have to share modifications (e.g bug-fixes) you've made to this program.

For more convoluted language, see the LICENSE file.

About

Andri Möll typed this and the code.
Monday Calendar supported the engineering work.

If you find Kindof.js needs improving, please don't hesitate to type to me now at [e-mail] or create an issue online.