We can use the getPrototypeOf method to get the prototype property of the object (i.e, the [[Prototype]] property value of an object).
Object.getPrototypeOf(obj)
The above method will return the prototype of the passed object. If the passed object has no null is returned.
let user = {name: "hi"};let proto = Object.getPrototypeOf(user);console.log("user object is ", user);console.log("prototype of user object is", proto);console.log("\n checking if the prototype of the user object is Object.prototype");console.log( Object.getPrototypeOf(user) === Object.prototype );
In the code above, we have created a user object – upon getting the prototype of the user object, it will return Object.prototype.
Let’s look at another example with inherited objects:
let human = {type: "human"};let male = Object.create(human);male.gender = "male";let user = Object.create(male);user.name = "Ram";console.log("Human - ", human);console.log("Male - ", male);console.log("User - ", user);console.log("\n\nGetting Prototype\n")console.log("Prototype of user: ", Object.getPrototypeOf(user));console.log("Prototype of male: ", Object.getPrototypeOf(male));console.log("Prototype of human: ", Object.getPrototypeOf(human));
In the code above, we have a human object from which a male is created, from the male, the user is created. So, prototype of:
user - malemale - humanhuman - ObjectThe getPrototypeOf method returns null for Objects with no prototype.
let obj = Object.create(null);
console.log("Prototype of obj is", Object.getPrototypeOf(obj) );
The above code will return null because the obj has no prototype.