Checking if a key exists in a JavaScript object?

Question

How do I check if a particular key exists in a JavaScript object or array?

If a key doesn\'t exist, and I try to access it, will it return false? Or throw an error?<

Answer 1

Three ways to check if a property is present in a javascript object:

1. !!obj.theProperty
   Will convert value to bool. returns true for all but the false value
2. 'theProperty' in obj
   Will return true if the property exists, no matter its value (even empty)
3. obj.hasOwnProperty('theProperty')
   Does not check the prototype chain. (since all objects have the toString method, 1 and 2 will return true on it, while 3 can return false on it.)

Reference:

http://book.mixu.net/node/ch5.html