How do I loop through or enumerate a JavaScript object?

You have to use the for-in loop

But be very careful when using this kind of loop, because this will loop all the properties along the prototype chain.

Therefore, when using for-in loops, always make use of the hasOwnProperty method to determine if the current property in iteration is really a property of the object you're checking on:

for (var prop in p) {
    if (!p.hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
        //The current property is not a direct property of p
        continue;
    }
    //Do your logic with the property here
}

The question won't be complete if we don't mention about alternative methods for looping through objects.

Nowadays many well known JavaScript libraries provide their own methods for iterating over collections, i.e. over arrays, objects, and array-like objects. These methods are convenient to use and are entirely compatible with any browser.

1. If you work with jQuery, you may use jQuery.each() method. It can be used to seamlessly iterate over both objects and arrays:

   $.each(obj, function(key, value) {
       console.log(key, value);
   });
   

2. In Underscore.js you can find method _.each(), which iterates over a list of elements, yielding each in turn to a supplied function (pay attention to the order of arguments in iteratee function!):

   _.each(obj, function(value, key) {
       console.log(key, value);
   });
   

3. Lo-Dash provides several methods for iterating over object properties. Basic _.forEach() (or it's alias _.each()) is useful for looping through both objects and arrays, however (!) objects with length property are treated like arrays, and to avoid this behavior it is suggested to use _.forIn() and _.forOwn() methods (these also have value argument coming first):

   _.forIn(obj, function(value, key) {
       console.log(key, value);
   });
   

   _.forIn() iterates over own and inherited enumerable properties of an object, while _.forOwn() iterates only over own properties of an object (basically checking against hasOwnProperty function). For simple objects and object literals any of these methods will work fine.

Generally all described methods have the same behaviour with any supplied objects. Besides using native for..in loop will usually be faster than any abstraction, such as jQuery.each(), these methods are considerably easier to use, require less coding and provide better error handling.

Under ECMAScript 5, you can combine Object.keys() and Array.prototype.forEach():

var obj = { first: "John", last: "Doe" };

Object.keys(obj).forEach(function(key) {
    console.log(key, obj[key]);
});

ES2016 adds for...of:

for (const key of Object.keys(obj)) {
    console.log(key, obj[key]);
}

ES2017 adds Object.entries() which avoids having to look up each value in the original object:

Object.entries(obj).forEach(
    ([key, value]) => console.log(key, value)
);

Both Object.keys() and Object.entries() iterate properties in the same order as a for...in loop but ignore the prototype chain. Only the object's own enumerable properties are iterated.

In ECMAScript 5 you have new approach in iteration fields of literal - Object.keys

More information you can see on MDN

My choice is below as a faster solution in current versions of browsers (Chrome30, IE10, FF25)

var keys = Object.keys(p),
    len = keys.length,
    i = 0,
    prop,
    value;
while (i < len) {
    prop = keys[i];
    value = p[prop];
    i += 1;
}

You can compare performance of this approach with different implementations on jsperf.com:

• Extend Implementations
• Object keys iteration
• object literal iteration

Browser support you can see on Kangax's compat table

For old browser you have simple and full polyfill

UPD:

performance comparison for all most popular cases in this question on perfjs.info:

object literal iteration

You can just iterate over it like:

for (var key in p) {
  alert(p[key]);
}

Note that key will not take on the value of the property, it's just an index value.

via prototype with forEach() which should skip the prototype chain properties:

Object.prototype.each = function(f) {
    var obj = this
    Object.keys(obj).forEach( function(key) { 
        f( key , obj[key] ) 
    });
}


//print all keys and values
var obj = {a:1,b:2,c:3}
obj.each(function(key,value) { console.log(key + " " + value) });
// a 1
// b 2
// c 3

After looking through all the answers in here, hasOwnProperty isn't required for my own usage because my json object is clean; there's really no sense in adding any additional javascript processing. This is all I'm using:

for (var key in p) {
    console.log(key + ' => ' + p[key]);
    // key is key
    // value is p[key]
}

Object.keys(obj) : Array

retrieves all string-valued keys of all enumerable own (non-inherited) properties.

So it gives the same list of keys as you intend by testing each object key with hasOwnProperty. You don't need that extra test operation than and Object.keys( obj ).forEach(function( key ){}) is supposed to be faster. Let's prove it:

var uniqid = function(){
			var text = "",
					i = 0,
					possible = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
			for( ; i < 32; i++ ) {
					text += possible.charAt( Math.floor( Math.random() * possible.length ) );
			}
			return text;
		}, 
		CYCLES = 100000,
		obj = {}, 
		p1,
		p2,
		p3,
		key;

// Populate object with random properties
Array.apply( null, Array( CYCLES ) ).forEach(function(){
	obj[ uniqid() ] = new Date()
});

// Approach #1
p1 = performance.now();
Object.keys( obj ).forEach(function( key ){
	var waste = obj[ key ];
});

p2 = performance.now();
console.log( "Object.keys approach took " + (p2 - p1) + " milliseconds.");

// Approach #2
for( key in obj ) {
	if ( obj.hasOwnProperty( key ) ) {
		var waste = obj[ key ];
	}
}

p3 = performance.now();
console.log( "for...in/hasOwnProperty approach took " + (p3 - p2) + " milliseconds.");

In my Firefox I have following results

• Object.keys approach took 40.21101451665163 milliseconds.
• for...in/hasOwnProperty approach took 98.26163508463651 milliseconds.

PS. on Chrome the difference even bigger http://codepen.io/dsheiko/pen/JdrqXa

PS2: In ES6 (EcmaScript 2015) you can iterate iterable object nicer:

let map = new Map().set('a', 1).set('b', 2);
for (let pair of map) {
    console.log(pair);
}

// OR 
let map = new Map([
    [false, 'no'],
    [true,  'yes'],
]);
map.forEach((value, key) => {
    console.log(key, value);
});

var p =
    {
        "p1": "value1",
        "p2": "value2",
        "p3": "value3"
    };

for (var key in p) 
{
    if (p.hasOwnProperty(key))
    {
    alert(key + " = " + p[key]);
    }
}
---------------------------
---------------------------
Output:
p1 = values1
p2 = values2
p3 = values3

It's interesting people in these answers have touched on both Object.keys() and for...of but never combined them:

var map = {well:'hello', there:'!'};
for (let key of Object.keys(map))
    console.log(key + ':' + map[key]);

_{You can't just for...of an Object because it's not an iterator, and for...index or .forEach()ing the Object.keys() is ugly/inefficient.
I'm glad most people are refraining from for...in (with or without checking .hasOwnProperty()) as that's also a bit messy, so other than my answer above, I'm here to say...}

You can make ordinary object associations iterate! Behaving just like Maps with direct use of the fancy for...of
DEMO working in Chrome and FF (I assume ES6 only)

var ordinaryObject = {well:'hello', there:'!'};
for (let pair of ordinaryObject)
    //key:value
    console.log(pair[0] + ':' + pair[1]);

//or
for (let [key, value] of ordinaryObject)
    console.log(key + ':' + value);

So long as you include my shim below:

//makes all objects iterable just like Maps!!! YAY
//iterates over Object.keys() (which already ignores prototype chain for us)
Object.prototype[Symbol.iterator] = function() {
    var keys = Object.keys(this)[Symbol.iterator]();
    var obj = this;
    var output;
    return {next:function() {
        if (!(output = keys.next()).done)
            output.value = [output.value, obj[output.value]];
        return output;
    }};
};

Without having to create a real Map object that doesn't have the nice syntactic sugar.

var trueMap = new Map([['well', 'hello'], ['there', '!']]);
for (let pair of trueMap)
    console.log(pair[0] + ':' + pair[1]);

In fact, with this shim, if you still wanted to take advantage of Map's other functionality (without shimming them all in) but still wanted to use the neat object notation, since objects are now iterable you can now just make a Map from it!

//shown in demo
var realMap = new Map({well:'hello', there:'!'});

For those who don't like to shim, or mess with prototype in general, feel free to make the function on window instead, calling it something like getObjIterator() then;

var realMap = new Map(getObjIterator({well:'hello', there:'!'}))

or

for (let pair of getObjIterator(ordinaryObject))

There's no reason why that wouldn't work.

Welcome to the future.

You can add a simple forEach function to all objects, so you can automatically loop through any object:

Object.defineProperty(Object.prototype, 'forEach', {
    value: function (func) {
        for (var key in this) {
            if (!this.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
                // skip loop if the property is from prototype
                continue;
            }
            var value = this[key];
            func(key, value);
        }
    },
    enumerable: false
});

For those people who don't like the "for ... in"-method:

Object.defineProperty(Object.prototype, 'forEach', {
    value: function (func) {
        var arr = Object.keys(this);
        for (var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
            var key = arr[i];
            func(key, this[key]);
        }
    },
    enumerable: false
});

Now, you can simple call:

p.forEach (function(key, value){
    console.log ("Key: " + key);
    console.log ("Value: " + value);
});

If you don't want to get conflicts with other forEach-Methods you can name it with your unique name.

for(key in p) {
  alert( p[key] );
}

Note: you can do this over arrays, but you'll iterate over the length and other properties, too.

If you want to iterate over non-enumerable properties as well, you can use Object.getOwnPropertyNames(obj) to return an array of all properties (enumerable or not) found directly upon a given object.

var obj = Object.create({}, {
  // non-enumerable property
  getFoo: {
    value: function() { return this.foo; },
    enumerable: false
  }
});

obj.foo = 1; // enumerable property

Object.getOwnPropertyNames(obj).forEach(function (name) {
  document.write(name + ': ' + obj[name] + '<br/>');
});

Only JavaScript code without dependencies:

var p = {"p1": "value1", "p2": "value2", "p3": "value3"};
keys = Object.keys(p);   // ["p1", "p2", "p3"]

for(i = 0; i < keys.length; i++){
  console.log(keys[i] + "=" + p[keys[i]]);   // p1=value1, p2=value2, p3=value3
}

Loops can be pretty interesting when using pure JavaScript. It seems that only ECMA6 (New 2015 JavaScript specification) got the loops under control. Unfortunately as I'm writing this, both Browsers and popular Integrated development environment (IDE) are still struggling to support completely the new bells and whistles.

At a glance here is what a JavaScript object loop look like before ECMA6:

for (var key in object) {
  if (p.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
    var value = object[key];
    console.log(key); // This is the key;
    console.log(value); // This is the value;
  }
}

Also, I know this is out of scope with this question but in 2011, ECMAScript 5.1 added the forEach method for Arrays only which basically created a new improved way to loop through arrays while still leaving non iterable objects with the old verbose and confusing for loop. But the odd part is that this new forEach method does not support break which led to all sorts of other problems.

Basically in 2011, there is not a real solid way to loop in JavaScript other than what many popular libraries (jQuery, Underscore, etc.) decided to re-implement.

As of 2015, we now have a better out of the box way to loop (and break) any object type (including Arrays and Strings). Here is what a loop in JavaScript will eventually look like when the recommendation becomes mainstream:

for (let [key, value] of Object.entries(object)) {
    console.log(key); // This is the key;
    console.log(value); // This is the value;
}

Note that most browsers won't support the code above as of June 18th 2016. Even in Chrome you need to enable this special flag for it to work: chrome://flags/#enable-javascript-harmony

Until this becomes the new standard, the old method can still be used but there are also alternatives in popular libraries or even lightweight alternatives for those who aren't using any of these libraries.

Considering ES6 I'd like to add my own spoon of sugar and provide one more approach to iterate over object's properties.

Since plain JS object isn't iterable just out of box, we aren't able to use for..of loop for iterating over its content. But no one can stop us to make it iterable.

Let's we have book object.

let book = {
  title: "Amazing book",
  author: "Me",
  pages: 3
}

book[Symbol.iterator] = function(){

  let properties = Object.keys(this); // returns an array with property names
  let counter = 0;
  let isDone = false;

  let next = () => {
    if(counter >= properties.length){
      isDone = true;
    }
    return { done: isDone, value: this[properties[counter++]] }
  }

  return { next };
}

Since we've made it we can use it this way:

for(let pValue of book){
  console.log(pValue);
}
------------------------
Amazing book
Me
3

Or if you know the power of ES6 generators, so you certainly can make the code above much shorter.

book[Symbol.iterator] = function *(){

  let properties = Object.keys(this);
  for (let p of properties){
    yield this[p];
  }

}

Sure, you can apply such behavior for all objects with making Object iterable on prototype level.

Object.prototype[Symbol.iterator] = function() {...}

Also, objects that comply with the iterable protocol can be used with the new ES2015 feature spread operator thus we can read object property values as an array.

let pValues = [...book];
console.log(pValues);
-------------------------
["Amazing book", "Me", 3]

Or you can use destructuring assignment:

let [title, , pages] = book; // notice that we can just skip unnecessary values
console.log(title);
console.log(pages);
------------------
Amazing book
3

You can check out JSFiddle with all code I've provided above.

If anybody needs to loop through arrayObjects with condition:

var arrayObjects = [{"building":"A", "status":"good"},{"building":"B","status":"horrible"}];

for (var i=0; i< arrayObjects.length; i++) {
  console.log(arrayObjects[i]);
  
  for(key in arrayObjects[i]) {      
    
      if (key == "status" && arrayObjects[i][key] == "good") {
        
          console.log(key + "->" + arrayObjects[i][key]);
      }else{
          console.log("nothing found");
      }
   }
}

Since es2015 is getting more and more popular I am posting this answer which include usage of generator and iterator to smoothly iterate through keys,values pairs. As it is possible in other languages for instance Ruby.

Ok here is a code:

let MyObject = {
    'a': 'Hello',
    'b': 'it\'s',
    'c': 'me',
    'd': 'you',
    'e': 'looking',
    'f': 'for',
    [Symbol.iterator]: function* () {
        let properties = Object.keys(this);
        for (let i of properties) {
            yield [i, this[i]];
        }
    }
};

for (let [k, v] of MyObject) {
    console.log(`Here is key ${k} and here is value ${v}`);
}

All information about how can you do an iterator and generator you can find at developer mozilla page.

If you need further explanation please let me know in the comments rather than giving downvotes. Hope I helped someone :)

I would do this rather than checking obj.hasOwnerProperty within every for ... in loop.

var obj = {a : 1};
for(var key in obj){
    //obj.hasOwnProperty(key) is not needed.
    console.log(key);
}
//then check if anybody has messed the native object. Put this code at the end of the page.
for(var key in Object){
    throw new Error("Please don't extend the native object");
}

In ES6 we have well-known symbols to expose some previously internal methods, you can use it to define how iterators work for this object:

var p = {
    "p1": "value1",
    "p2": "value2",
    "p3": "value3",
    *[Symbol.iterator]() {
        yield *Object.keys(this);
    }
};

[...p] //["p1", "p2", "p3"]

this will give the same result as using for...in es6 loop.

for(var key in p) {
    console.log(key);
}

But its important to know the capabilities you now have using es6!

Since ES2015 you can use the for of loop, to access the element directly:

// before ES2015
for(var key of elements){
  console.log(elements[key]);
}


// ES2015
for(let element of elements){
  console.log(element);
}

Hope this helps someone.