is-plain

📖 Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
• Comparison with Other Libraries
  • Small Package Size
  • Edge Cases Other Libraries Missed
    • Case 1
    • Case 2
    • Case 3
    • Case 4
    • Case 5
    • Case 6
• License

Tests if a value is a plain object. That is:

• an object created using new Object()
• or, an object without a prototype Object.create(null)
• or, an object created using the literal notation {}

Installation

# using npm 
npm install --save is-plain
 
# using yarn 
yarn add is-plain

Usage

import isPlain from 'is-plain';
 
isPlain({ foo: 'bar' });
//=> true
 
isPlain(Object.create(null));
//=> true
 
isPlain(new Object());
//=> true
 
class Foo {}
isPlain(new Foo());
//=> false
 
isPlain([1, 2, 3]);
//=> false
 
isPlain(null);
//=> false
 
isPlain(Promise.resolve());
//=> false

Comparison with Other Libraries

There are already similar libraries available to test if a value is a plain object. Some of these libraries are very widely adopted. To name a few:

• lodash.isplainobject
• is-plain-object
• is-plain-obj

So, why need is-plain when other solutions already exist?

Small Package Size

is-plain is only 140 bytes minzipped.

The following is a size comparison between is-plain and other popular libraries ranked by their minified size:

Edge Cases Other Libraries Missed

While is-plain is very comparable to is-plain-obj in both size and logic (is-plain being smaller by 3 bytes), the size wasn't the the only motive. Most importantly, what I wanted to address is some of the edge cases the other libraries are missing.

The following are some of the cases that causes inconsistent, arguably incorrect, results when one of the other three libraries is used (note that in all of the following cases, is-plain considers these objects to be plain objects).

Case 1

// an object without a prototype
const value = Object.create(null);

		is value a plain object?
	is-plain (this package)	true
	is-plain-obj	true
⚠️	is-plain-object	false
	lodash.isplainobject	true

Case 2

// an object with an empty prototype
const value = Object.create({});

		is value a plain object?
	is-plain (this package)	true
⚠️	is-plain-obj	false
	is-plain-object	true
⚠️	lodash.isplainobject	false

Case 3

// an object with a prototype whose constructor is Object
const value = Object.create({ constructor: Object });

		is value a plain object?
	is-plain (this package)	true
⚠️	is-plain-obj	false
	is-plain-object	true
	lodash.isplainobject	true

Case 4

// an object literal with own property 'constructor'
const value = {
  constructor: Foo,
};

		is value a plain object?
	is-plain (this package)	true
	is-plain-obj	true
⚠️	is-plain-object	false
	lodash.isplainobject	true

Case 5

// an object literal with a '__proto__' property as an object
const value = {
  __proto__: {},
};

		is value a plain object?
	is-plain (this package)	true
⚠️	is-plain-obj	false
	is-plain-object	true
⚠️	lodash.isplainobject	false

Case 6

// an instance of a prototype whose constructor is Object
function ObjectConstructor() {}
ObjectConstructor.prototype.constructor = Object;
const value = new ObjectConstructor();

		is value a plain object?
	is-plain (this package)	true
⚠️	is-plain-obj	false
	is-plain-object	true
	lodash.isplainobject	true

License

MIT