en.javascript.info/1-js/07-object-oriented-programming/10-class-inheritance/3-class-extend-object/solution.md
Ilya Kantor 97c8f22bbb up
2017-03-21 17:14:05 +03:00

2.3 KiB

The answer has two parts.

The first, an easy one is that the inheriting class needs to call super() in the constructor. Otherwise "this" won't be "defined".

So here's the fix:

class Rabbit extends Object {
  constructor(name) {
*!*
    super(); // need to call the parent constructor when inheriting
*/!*
    this.name = name;
  }
}

let rabbit = new Rabbit("Rab");

alert( rabbit.hasOwnProperty('name') ); // true

But that's not all yet.

Even after the fix, there's still important difference in "class Rabbit extends Object" versus class Rabbit.

As we know, the "extends" syntax sets up two prototypes:

  1. Between "prototype" of the constructor functions (for methods).
  2. Between the constructor functions itself (for static methods).

In our case, for class Rabbit extends Object it means:

class Rabbit extends Object {}

alert( Rabbit.prototype.__proto__ === Object.prototype ); // (1) true
alert( Rabbit.__proto__ === Object ); // (2) true

So we can access static methods of Object via Rabbit, like this:

class Rabbit extends Object {}

*!*
// normally we call Object.getOwnPropertyNames
alert ( Rabbit.getOwnPropertyNames({a: 1, b: 2})); // a,b
*/!*

And if we don't use extends, then class Rabbit does not get the second reference.

Please compare with it:

class Rabbit {}

alert( Rabbit.prototype.__proto__ === Object.prototype ); // (1) true
alert( Rabbit.__proto__ === Object ); // (2) false (!)

*!*
// error, no such function in Rabbit
alert ( Rabbit.getOwnPropertyNames({a: 1, b: 2})); // Error
*/!*

For the simple class Rabbit, the Rabbit function has the same prototype

class Rabbit {}

// instead of (2) that's correct for Rabbit (just like any function):
alert( Rabbit.__proto__ === Function.prototype );

By the way, Function.prototype has "generic" function methods, like call, bind etc. They are ultimately available in both cases, because for the built-in Object constructor, Object.__proto__ === Function.prototype.

Here's the picture:

So, to put it short, there are two differences:

class Rabbit class Rabbit extends Object
-- needs to call super() in constructor
Rabbit.__proto__ === Function.prototype Rabbit.__proto__ === Object