How to get object length

Question

Is there any built-in function that can return the length of an object?

For example, I have a = { 'a':1,'b':2,'c':3 } which should return 3. If I use a.length it returns undefined.

It could be a simple loop function, but I'd like to know if there's a built-in function?

There is a related question (Length of a JSON object) - in the chosen answer the user advises to transform object into an array, which is not pretty comfortable for my task.

Answer 1

For browsers supporting Object.keys() you can simply do:

Object.keys(a).length;

Otherwise (notably in IE < 9), you can loop through the object yourself with a for (x in y) loop:

var count = 0;
var i;

for (i in a) {
    if (a.hasOwnProperty(i)) {
        count++;
    }
}

The hasOwnProperty is there to make sure that you're only counting properties from the object literal, and not properties it "inherits" from its prototype.

Answer 2

This should do it:

Object.keys(a).length

However, Object.keys is not supported in IE8 and below, Opera and FF 3.6 and below.

Live demo: http://jsfiddle.net/simevidas/nN84h/

Answer 3

Can be done easily with $.map():

var len = $.map(a, function(n, i) { return i; }).length;

Answer 4

Have you taken a look at underscore.js (http://underscorejs.org/docs/underscore.html)? It's a utility library with a lot of useful methods. There is a collection size method, as well as a toArray method, which may get you what you need.

_.size({one : 1, two : 2, three : 3});
=> 3

Answer 5

Summarizing all together, here is a universal function (including ie8 support):

var objSize = function(obj) {
    var count = 0;
    
    if (typeof obj == "object") {
    
        if (Object.keys) {
            count = Object.keys(obj).length;
        } else if (window._) {
            count = _.keys(obj).length;
        } else if (window.$) {
            count = $.map(obj, function() { return 1; }).length;
        } else {
            for (var key in obj) if (obj.hasOwnProperty(key)) count++;
        }
        
    }
    
    return count;
};

document.write(objSize({ a: 1, b: 2, c: 3 }));
// 3

Answer 6

In jQuery i've made it in a such way:

len = function(obj) {
    var L=0;
    $.each(obj, function(i, elem) {
        L++;
    });
    return L;
}

Answer 7

So one does not have to find and replace the Object.keys method, another approach would be this code early in the execution of the script:

if(!Object.keys)
{
  Object.keys = function(obj)
  {
    return $.map(obj, function(v, k)
    {
      return k;
    });
  };
 }

Answer 8

Also can be done in this way:

Object.entries(obj).length

---

For example:

let obj = { a: 1, b: 2, };
console.log(Object.entries(obj).length); //=> 2
// Object.entries(obj) => [ [ 'a', 1 ], [ 'b', 2 ] ]

Answer 9

Here's a jQuery-ised function of Innuendo's answer, ready for use.

$.extend({
    keyCount : function(o) {
        if(typeof o == "object") {
            var i, count = 0;
            for(i in o) {
                if(o.hasOwnProperty(i)) {
                    count++;
                }
            }
            return count;
        } else {
            return false;
        }
    }
});

Can be called like this:

var cnt = $.keyCount({"foo" : "bar"}); //cnt = 1;

Answer 10

One more answer:

var j = '[{"uid":"1","name":"Bingo Boy", "profile_img":"funtimes.jpg"},{"uid":"2","name":"Johnny Apples", "profile_img":"badtime.jpg"}]';

obj = Object.keys(j).length;
console.log(obj)

Answer 11

For those coming here to find the item count of something that is already a jQuery object:
.length is what you are looking for:

Example:

len = $('#divID').length;
alert(len);

Answer 12

If you want to avoid new dependencies you could make your own smart objects. Of course only if you want to do more that just get it's size.

MyNeatObj = function (obj) {
  var length = null;

  this.size = function () {
    if (length === null) {
      length = 0;
      for (var key in obj) length++;
    }
    return length;
  }
}

var thingy = new MyNeatObj(originalObj);
thingy.size();

Answer 13

You might have an undefined property in the object. If using the method of Object.keys(data).length is used those properties will also be counted.

You might want to filter them out out.

Object.keys(data).filter((v) => {return data[v] !== undefined}).length

Answer 14

You may use something like Lodash lib and _.toLength(object) should give you the length of your object

Answer 15

You could add another name:value pair of length, and increment/decrement it appropriately. This way, when you need to query the length, you don't have to iterate through the entire objects properties every time, and you don't have to rely on a specific browser or library. It all depends on your goal, of course.