Object.keys, values, entries

Let’s step away from the individual data structures and talk about the iterations over them.

In the previous chapter we saw methods map.keys(), map.values(), map.entries().

These methods are generic, there is a common agreement to use them for data structures. If we ever create a data structure of our own, we should implement them too.

They are supported for:

  • Map
  • Set
  • Array (except arr.values())

Plain objects also support similar methods, but the syntax is a bit different.

Object.keys, values, entries

For plain objects, the following methods are available:

…But please note the distinctions (compared to map for example):

Map Object
Call syntax map.keys() Object.keys(obj), but not obj.keys()
Returns iterable “real” Array

The first difference is that we have to call Object.keys(obj), and not obj.keys().

Why so? The main reason is flexibility. Remember, objects are a base of all complex structures in JavaScript. So we may have an object of our own like order that implements its own order.values() method. And we still can call Object.values(order) on it.

The second difference is that Object.* methods return “real” array objects, not just an iterable. That’s mainly for historical reasons.

For instance:

let user = {
  name: "John",
  age: 30
  • Object.keys(user) = [name, age]
  • Object.values(user) = ["John", 30]
  • Object.entries(user) = [ ["name","John"], ["age",30] ]

Here’s an example of using Object.values to loop over property values:

let user = {
  name: "John",
  age: 30

// loop over values
for (let value of Object.values(user)) {
  alert(value); // John, then 30

Object.keys/values/entries ignore symbolic properties

Just like a for..in loop, these methods ignore properties that use Symbol(...) as keys.

Usually that’s convenient. But if we want symbolic keys too, then there’s a separate method Object.getOwnPropertySymbols that returns an array of only symbolic keys. Also, the method Reflect.ownKeys(obj) returns all keys.


importance: 5

There is a salaries object with arbitrary number of salaries.

Write the function sumSalaries(salaries) that returns the sum of all salaries using Object.values and the for..of loop.

If salaries is empty, then the result must be 0.

For instance:

let salaries = {
  "John": 100,
  "Pete": 300,
  "Mary": 250

alert( sumSalaries(salaries) ); // 650

Open the sandbox with tests.

importance: 5

Write a function count(obj) that returns the number of properties in the object:

let user = {
  name: 'John',
  age: 30

alert( count(user) ); // 2

Try to make the code as short as possible.

P.S. Ignore symbolic properties, count only “regular” ones.

Open the sandbox with tests.

Tutorial map


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