How can I check if a JSON is empty in NodeJS?

If you have compatibility with Object.keys, and node does have compatibility, you should use that for sure.

However, if you do not have compatibility, and for any reason using a loop function is out of the question - like me, I used the following solution:

JSON.stringify(obj) === '{}'

Consider this solution a 'last resort' use only if must.

See in the comments "there are many ways in which this solution is not ideal".

I had a last resort scenario, and it worked perfectly.

You can use this:

var isEmpty = function(obj) {
  return Object.keys(obj).length === 0;
}

or this:

function isEmpty(obj) {
  return !Object.keys(obj).length > 0;
}

You can also use this:

function isEmpty(obj) {
  for(var prop in obj) {
    if(obj.hasOwnProperty(prop))
      return false;
  }

  return true;
}

If using underscore or jQuery, you can use their isEmpty or isEmptyObject calls.

Object.keys(myObj).length === 0;

As there is need to just check if Object is empty it will be better to directly call a native method Object.keys(myObj).length which returns the array of keys by internally iterating with for..in loop.As Object.hasOwnProperty returns a boolean result based on the property present in an object which itself iterates with for..in loop and will have time complexity O(N2).

On the other hand calling a UDF which itself has above two implementations or other will work fine for small object but will block the code which will have severe impact on overall perormance if Object size is large unless nothing else is waiting in the event loop.

You can use either of these functions:

// This should work in node.js and other ES5 compliant implementations.
function isEmptyObject(obj) {
  return !Object.keys(obj).length;
}

// This should work both there and elsewhere.
function isEmptyObject(obj) {
  for (var key in obj) {
    if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(obj, key)) {
      return false;
    }
  }
  return true;
}

Example usage:

if (isEmptyObject(query)) {
  // There are no queries.
} else {
  // There is at least one query,
  // or at least the query object is not empty.
}