I'm trying to get:
document.createElement('div') //=> true
{tagName: 'foobar something'} //=> false
In my own scripts, I used to just use this since I never needed tagName
as a property:
if (!object.tagName) throw ...;
So for the second object, I came up with the following as a quick solution -- which mostly works. ;)
The problem is, it depends on browsers enforcing read-only properties, which not all do.
function isDOM(obj) {
var tag = obj.tagName;
try {
obj.tagName = ''; // Read-only for DOM, should throw exception
obj.tagName = tag; // Restore for normal objects
return false;
} catch (e) {
return true;
}
}
Is there a good substitute?
I suggest a simple way to testing if a variable is an DOM element
How about Lo-Dash's
_.isElement
?And in the code:
You can see if the object or node in question returns a string type.
I tested this on Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera and IE9. I couldn't find a way to hack it.
In theory, it tests every ancestor of the proposed element, as well as the element itself, by inserting a script tag before it.
If its first ancestor traces back to a known element, such as
<html>
,<head>
or<body>
, and it hasn't thrown an error along the way, we have an element.If the first ancestor is not attached to the document, we create an element and attempt to place the proposed element inside of it, (and then remove it from the new element).
So it either traces back to a known element, successfully attaches to a known element or fails.
It returns the element or null if it is not an element.
// In fact I am more likely t use these inline, but sometimes it is good to have these shortcuts for setup code
I have a special way to do this that has not yet been mentioned in the answers.
My solution is based on four tests. If the object passes all four, then it is an element:
The object is not null.
The object has a method called "appendChild".
The method "appendChild" was inherited from the Node class, and isn't just an imposter method (a user-created property with an identical name).
The object is of Node Type 1 (Element). Objects that inherit methods from the Node class are always Nodes, but not necessarily Elements.
Q: How do I check if a given property is inherited and isn't just an imposter?
A: A simple test to see if a method was truly inherited from Node is to first verify that the property has a type of "object" or "function". Next, convert the property to a string and check if the result contains the text "[Native Code]". If the result looks something like this:
Then the method has been inherited from the Node object. See https://davidwalsh.name/detect-native-function
And finally, bringing all the tests together, the solution is: