Benefit of using Object.hasOwnProperty vs. testing if a property is undefined

The hasOwnProperty method checks that a property is assigned to the object directly.

So, if property 'a' is in the prototype, hasOwnProperty will filter that.

function NewClass() {}
NewClass.prototype = { a: 'there' };
var obj = new NewClass();

if (obj.hasOwnProperty('a')) { /* Code does not work */ }
if (obj.a !== undefined) { /* Code works */ }

So, hasOwnProperty is safer in many cases.

hasOwnProperty does not check for undefined values. It only checks if a property is assigned to the object even if is undefined:

var obj = { a : undefined };
obj.hasOwnProperty("a") // true
obj.a === undefined     // true
obj.hasOwnProperty("b") // false
obj.b === undefined     // true

As further information to the answer given by Pavel Gruba, and the polyfil that you supplied:

To the best of my knowledge, there is no good way to polyfil hasOwnProperty for browsers that do not support it natively. I have seen quite a few different ones in the wild and they all produce false positives or negatives. If I have absolutely no alternative then this is what I created for my use, but it also suffers false positives and negatives. According to MSDN.

Supported in the following document modes: Quirks, Internet Explorer 6 standards, Internet Explorer 7 standards, Internet Explorer 8 standards, Internet Explorer 9 standards, Internet Explorer 10 standards. Also supported in Windows Store apps.

JavaScript

function is(x, y) {
    if (x === y) {
        if (x === 0) {
            return 1 / x === 1 / y;
        }

        return true;
    }

    var x1 = x,
        y1 = y;

    return x !== x1 && y !== y1;
}

function hasOwnProperty(object, property) {
    var prototype;

    return property in object && (!(property in (prototype = object.__proto__ || object.constructor.prototype)) || !is(object[property], prototype[property]));
}

function NewClass() {}
NewClass.prototype = {
    a: 'there'
};

var obj = new NewClass();

if (obj.hasOwnProperty("a")) {
    console.log("has property")
}

if (hasOwnProperty(obj, "a")) {
    console.log("has property")
}

On JSFiddle.