What techniques can be used to define a class in JavaScript, and what are their trade-offs?

Question

I prefer to use OOP in large scale projects like the one I\'m working on right now. I need to create several classes in JavaScript but, if I\'m not mistaken, there are at le

Answer 1

Following are the ways to create objects in javascript, which I've used so far

Example 1:

obj = new Object();
obj.name = 'test';
obj.sayHello = function() {
    console.log('Hello '+ this.name);
}

Example 2:

obj = {};
obj.name = 'test';
obj.sayHello = function() {
    console.log('Hello '+ this.name);
}
obj.sayHello();

Example 3:

var obj = function(nameParam) {
    this.name = nameParam;
}
obj.prototype.sayHello = function() {
    console.log('Hello '+ this.name);
}

Example 4: Actual benefits of Object.create(). please refer [this link]

var Obj = {
    init: function(nameParam) {
        this.name = nameParam;
    },
    sayHello: function() {
        console.log('Hello '+ this.name);
    }
};
var usrObj = Object.create(Obj);  // <== one level of inheritance

usrObj.init('Bob');
usrObj.sayHello();

Example 5 (customised Crockford's Object.create):

Object.build = function(o) {
   var initArgs = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,1)
   function F() {
      if((typeof o.init === 'function') && initArgs.length) {
         o.init.apply(this,initArgs)
      }
   }
   F.prototype = o
   return new F()
}
MY_GLOBAL = {i: 1, nextId: function(){return this.i++}}  // For example

var userB = {
    init: function(nameParam) {
        this.id = MY_GLOBAL.nextId();
        this.name = nameParam;
    },
    sayHello: function() {
        console.log('Hello '+ this.name);
    }
};
var bob = Object.build(userB, 'Bob');  // Different from your code
bob.sayHello();

---

To keep answer updated with ES6/ ES2015

A class is defined like this:

class Person {
    constructor(strName, numAge) {
        this.name = strName;
        this.age = numAge;
    }

    toString() {
        return '((Class::Person) named ' + this.name + ' & of age ' + this.age + ')';
    }
}

let objPerson = new Person("Bob",33);
console.log(objPerson.toString());