Object And Function Are Quite Confusing

Object instanceof Object true Object instanceof Function true Function instanceof Object true Function instanceof Function true so if Function is an Object and the Object is a Fun

Solution 1:

From JavaScript Prototypal Inheritance:

Quite everything, in JavaScript, inherits from Object. We could say that Object is the super class, or better, the super constructor, of every variable and that everything is an instanceof Object. The Object constructor is a Function, but a Function is an instanceof Object. This means that these assertions are always true:

(Object instanceof Function) === (Function instanceof Object)

Above example is true because Object is a constructor, and a constructor in JavaScript is always a Function. At the same time, every Function has its own prototype, and a prototype always starts its inheritance from Object.prototype. The Function constructor, is a Function itself, and the function prototype is a function(){};

(Function.prototype instanceof Object) === (function(){} instanceof Object)

Solution 2:

Everything is an Object in JavaScript because JavaScript is an object-oriented language. Function is an instance of Object because everything is an instance of Object. Simple enough. However, objects that initialize other objects (constructors) are also Functions in JavaScript, so it would make sense for Object to also be a Function.

Think about this:

var obj = newObject();

Object in this case is used as a Function, is it not? So while, in theory, Object should be the lowest-level object in the language, JavaScript cannot function without Functions (pun!), so you need both to be at the same level. Object needs to be an instance of Function because it's a constructor and it needs to create more instances of itself.

function FooBar() {}

The FooBar class above is an instance of both Object and Function, because it's both. The same logic applies to the built-in Object and Function objects; they're instances of both.

Phew, confusing. Did that make any sense?

Solution 3:

I think this is more due to the unique way in which objects are defined. You don't define a type in javascript, you define a constructor. But you also do not define the constructor as a constructor, it's simply a function.

You can then refer to the types by the name of their constructor....which is just a function.

function Tiger(){ //function, or object?
}

function Apple(){ //function, or object?
}

Both could be objects, or perhaps just functions. Only the way you use them will determine that. So it kind of makes sense that at a low level, objects are functions and functions are objects, but there is still a difference, right?

Solution 4:

There is no such thing as classes in Javascript. The instanceof operator is called on functions.

Object is a constructor function for "Object objects" (yes, this is the official term), and Function is the constructor function for "Function objects".

So, when you call Function instanceof Object, it returns true because Function is a function, and thus an object, etc. This does not mean that the types are the same, because Object and Function have different prototypes:

Object.prototype
   ^
   | inherits from
   |                instance
Function.prototype  <-------  Object, Function

Solution 5:

 javascript:alert([ window.navigator.userAgent, Object ].join("\n\n") )

displays

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100423 
    Ubuntu/10.04 (lucid) Firefox/3.6.3function Object() {
    [native code]
}

reference: Is every JavaScript Object a function?