Object vs Class vs Function
Update 2015
There are classes in JavaScript they just aren't used on older browsers:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Classes
It has constructors, extensions, and the like.
class Cat {
constructor(name) {
this.name = name;
}
speak() {
console.log(this.name + ' makes a noise.');
}
}
class Lion extends Cat {
speak() {
super.speak();
console.log(this.name + ' roars.');
}
}
A Class in JS:
function Animal(){
// Private property
var alive=true;
// Private method
function fight(){ //... }
// Public method which can access private variables
this.isAlive = function() { return alive; }
// Public property
this.name = "Joe";
}
// Public method
Animal.prototype.play = function() { alert("Bow wow!"); }
// .. and so on
Now when you create it's object
var obj = new Animal();
You can expect anything of this object as you would from objects in other language. Just the efforts to achieve it, was a bit different. You should also be looking at inheritance in JS.
Getting back too your question, I'll reword it as:
Class : A representation of a set with common properties.
object : One from the set with the same properties.
var Class = function() {alert('bar');}; // A set of function which alert 'bar'
var object = new Class(); // One of the functions who alert's 'bar'.
As you must already be aware by now there are no classes in JavaScript. Instead functions in JavaScript may be made to behave like constructors by preceding a function call with the new
keyword. This is known as the constructor pattern.
In JavaScript everything is an object except for the primitive data types (boolean, number and string), and undefined
. On the other hand null
is actually an object reference even though you may at first believe otherwise. This is the reason typeof null
returns "object"
.
Functions in JavaScript are similar to functables in Lua (i.e. they are callable objects). Hence a function can be used in place of an object. Similarly arrays are also objects in JavaScript. On the other hand objects can be thought of as associative arrays.
The most important point however is that there are no classes in JavaScript because JavaScript is a prototypal object oriented language. This means that objects in JavaScript directly inherit from other objects. Hence we don't need classes. All we need is a way to create and extend objects.
Read the following thread to learn more about prototypal inheritance in JavaScript: Benefits of prototypal inheritance over classical?