Object.preventExtensions

Summary

Prevents new properties from ever being added to an object (i.e. prevents future extensions to the object).

Method of Object
Implemented in	JavaScript 1.8.5
ECMAScript Edition	ECMAScript 5th Edition

Syntax

Object.preventExtensions(obj)

Parameters

obj

The object which should be made non-extensible.

Description

An object is extensible if new properties can be added to it.  preventExtensions marks an object as no longer extensible, so that it will never have properties beyond the ones it had at the time it was marked as non-extensible.  Note that the properties of a non-extensible object, in general, may still be deleted. Attempting to add new properties to a non-extensible object will fail, either silently or by throwing a TypeError (most commonly, but not exclusively, when in strict mode).

Object.preventExtensions only prevents addition of own properties. Properties can still be added to the object prototype. However, calling Object.preventExtensions on an object will also prevent extensions on its __proto__ ( Deprecated ) property.

If there is a way to turn an extensible object to a non-extensible one, there is no way to do the opposite in ECMAScript 5

Examples

// Object.preventExtensions returns the object being made non-extensible.
var obj = {};
var obj2 = Object.preventExtensions(obj);
assert(obj === obj2);

// Objects are extensible by default.
var empty = {};
assert(Object.isExtensible(empty) === true);

// ...but that can be changed.
Object.preventExtensions(empty);
assert(Object.isExtensible(empty) === false);

// Object.defineProperty throws when adding a new property to a non-extensible object.
var nonExtensible = { removable: true };
Object.preventExtensions(nonExtensible);
Object.defineProperty(nonExtensible, "new", { value: 8675309 }); // throws a TypeError

// In strict mode, attempting to add new properties to a non-extensible object throws a TypeError.
function fail()
{
  "use strict";
  nonExtensible.newProperty = "FAIL"; // throws a TypeError
}
fail();

// EXTENSION (only works in engines supporting __proto__ (which is deprecated. Use Object.getPrototypeOf instead)): A non-extensible object's prototype is immutable.
var fixed = Object.preventExtensions({});
fixed.__proto__ = { oh: "hai" }; // throws a TypeError

Browser compatibility

Based on Kangax's compat table.

See also

• Object.isExtensible
• Object.seal
• Object.isSealed
• Object.freeze
• Object.isFrozen