How to determine equality for two JavaScript objec

Question

A strict equality operator will tell you if two object types are equal. However, is there a way to tell if two objects are equal, much like the hash code value in Java?

Stack Overflow question Is there any kind of hashCode function in JavaScript? is similar to this question, but requires a more academic answer. The scenario above demonstrates why it would be necessary to have one, and I'm wondering if there is any equivalent solution.

Answer 1

For comparing keys for simple key/value pairs object instances, I use:

function compareKeys(r1, r2) {
    var nloops = 0, score = 0;
    for(k1 in r1) {
        for(k2 in r2) {
            nloops++;
            if(k1 == k2)
                score++; 
        }
    }
    return nloops == (score * score);
};

Once keys are compared, a simple additional for..in loop is enough.

Complexity is O(N*N) with N is the number of keys.

I hope/guess objects I define won't hold more than 1000 properties...

Answer 2

Needing a more generic object comparison function than had been posted, I cooked up the following. Critique appreciated...

Object.prototype.equals = function(iObj) {
  if (this.constructor !== iObj.constructor)
    return false;
  var aMemberCount = 0;
  for (var a in this) {
    if (!this.hasOwnProperty(a))
      continue;
    if (typeof this[a] === 'object' && typeof iObj[a] === 'object' ? !this[a].equals(iObj[a]) : this[a] !== iObj[a])
      return false;
    ++aMemberCount;
  }
  for (var a in iObj)
    if (iObj.hasOwnProperty(a))
      --aMemberCount;
  return aMemberCount ? false : true;
}

Answer 3

In Node.js, you can use its native require("assert").deepEqual. More info: http://nodejs.org/api/assert.html

For example:

var assert = require("assert");
assert.deepEqual({a:1, b:2}, {a:1, b:3}); // will throw AssertionError

Another example that returns true / false instead of returning errors:

var assert = require("assert");

function deepEqual(a, b) {
    try {
      assert.deepEqual(a, b);
    } catch (error) {
      if (error.name === "AssertionError") {
        return false;
      }
      throw error;
    }
    return true;
};

Answer 4

There is a very simple fix for this one, all you have to do is JSON.stringify() on both of the objects when you compare the two.

Answer 5

A simple solution to this issue that many people don't realize is to sort the JSON strings (per character). This is also usually faster than the other solutions mentioned here:

function areEqual(obj1, obj2) {
    var a = JSON.stringify(obj1), b = JSON.stringify(obj2);
    if (!a) a = '';
    if (!b) b = '';
    return (a.split('').sort().join('') == b.split('').sort().join(''));
}

Another useful thing about this method is you can filter comparisons by passing a "replacer" function to the JSON.stringify functions (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/stringify#Example_of_using_replacer_parameter). The following will only compare all objects keys that are named "derp":

function areEqual(obj1, obj2, filter) {
    var a = JSON.stringify(obj1, filter), b = JSON.stringify(obj2, filter);
    if (!a) a = '';
    if (!b) b = '';
    return (a.split('').sort().join('') == b.split('').sort().join(''));
}
var equal = areEqual(obj1, obj2, function(key, value) {
    return (key === 'derp') ? value : undefined;
});

Answer 6

you can use _.isEqual(obj1, obj2) from the underscore.js library.

Here is an example:

var stooge = {name: 'moe', luckyNumbers: [13, 27, 34]};
var clone  = {name: 'moe', luckyNumbers: [13, 27, 34]};
stooge == clone;
=> false
_.isEqual(stooge, clone);
=> true

See the official documentation from here: http://underscorejs.org/#isEqual