JavaScript: The Good Parts

Enumeration

The for in statement can loop over all of the property names in an object. The enumeration will include all of the properties—including functions and prototype properties that you might not be interested in—so it is necessary to filter out the values you don't want. The most common filters are the hasOwnProperty method and using typeof to exclude functions:

var name;
for (name in another_stooge) {
    if (typeof another_stooge[name] !== 'function') {
        document.writeln(name + ': ' + another_stooge[name]);
    }
}

There is no guarantee on the order of the names, so be prepared for the names to appear in any order. If you want to assure that the properties appear in a particular order, it is best to avoid the for in statement entirely and instead make an array containing the names of the properties in the correct order:

var i;
var properties = [
    'first-name',
    'middle-name',
    'last-name',
    'profession'
];
for (i = 0; i < properties.length; i += 1) {
    document.writeln(properties[i] + ': ' +
            another_stooge[properties[i]]);
    }

By using for instead of for in, we were able to get the properties we wanted without worrying about what might be dredged up from the prototype chain, and we got them in the correct order.