Prototype Inheritance ⛓

Questions 🤔

1. What is Prototypal inheritance
2. What is the difference between Prototype and [[Prototype]] and __proto__
3. What happens when you try to use or mutate an object using __proto__ in your production code?
4. What happens when you call a constructor function with the new keyword
   • A new empty object is created
   • The context object this is bound to the new empty object
   • The new object is linked to the function’s prototype property
   • If we see the empty object prototype it will return its own constructor unless another value is added explicitly to the function
5. After an object is created, for example using the new keyword, how can we access the prototype object that the instantiated object is linked to?
   There is two way to access a prototype in javascript
   • Object.getPrototypeOf(yourObject)
   • yourObject.proto
6. What is the difference between the classical and the prototypical inheritance?

You might of think prototypal inheritance in javascript is similar to inheritance from any other object-oriented programming language.

But, the answer is partial YES. Prototypal inheritance is somewhat similar to other programming languages.

And the base definition of inheritance remains the same i.e extending base class properties into child class as simple as that.

JavaScript had a prototypal inheritance from the beginning. It was one of the core features of the language.

Prototype Inheritance

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Have you ever wonder when we create an array, objects, or function how do we get its method on the fly? 🤔. Even though we don't specify a method like a length, split, splice, reduce, etc all will be available for us to utilize its kind of magic isn't it 🔮!!! Naah its Javascript prototypal inheritance

In JavaScript, every object will be having a special hidden property [[Prototype]], that is either null or references another object. That object is called a prototype

Let's see with an example

Consider you are manufacturing a laptop (MacbookPro 16") this laptop will have its own features like backlit Keyboard, touch bar, touchid, and many other cool features.

And now every MacbookPro 16" that you manufacture should have these features.

Now let's assume your constructor function will that will produce a new Macbook every time whenever it calls. Now here comes the prototype which will help to ensure all the manufactured Macbook will have all the features that we want.

function Macbook16() { }; // Constructor

Macbook16.prototype // {constructor: ƒ}

// Assigning the feature to the function

Macbook16.prototype.backlitKeyboard = function () {}

Macbook16.prototype.touchbar = function () {}

Macbook16.prototype.touchid = function () {}

Macbook16.prototype // {backlitKeyboard: ƒ, touchbar: ƒ, touchid: ƒ, constructor: ƒ}

// now lets create an instance for Macbook16 (In our case manufacturing Macbook)

let mac = new Macbook16();

// All my instance of Macbook16 will have feature of backlitKeyboard, touchbar and touchid

mac.__proto__ // {backlitKeyboard: ƒ, touchbar: ƒ, touchid: ƒ, constructor: ƒ}

The prototype for a constructor function will be the constructor of its own function itself

Now the question is. Why are these features stored in an object called __proto__, and not stored directly as properties of mac instance?

__proto__ is an object which will be present in every call instance and which will be referring to the prototype present

In our example mac.__proto__ is referring to the Macbook16.prototype and thus both hold the same properties whereas Macbook.prototype is again referring to Object.prototype thatsol

mac.__proto__ ➡️ Macbook.prototype ➡️ Object.prototype ➡️ null

This is nothing but PROTOTYPE INHERITANCE

Some thoughts 💡

• ES6 introduced a constructor function which is synthetic sugar(Shorthand for complex structure) for a traditional class
• __proto__ is historical getter and setter for [[prototype]]

proto and prototype

Both __proto__ and prototype belong to the prototypal inheritance but both are not the same.

__proto__ is a property of class instance whereas prototype is a property of class constructor

So far we have seen a prototype inheritance with constructor function and class. So the other way to add a prototype to object is using Object.create() method.

With this method, we can create a new object and specify what prototype of an object we want

let macbook = {

touchbar: function() {},

touchId: function() {}

}

let mac = Object.create(macbook);

mac.__proto__; // {touchbar: ƒ, touchId: ƒ}

Play with prototype

We can experiment a lot with the prototype. let's see with one small example

// Lets create two object with different property

let MacbookPro = {

screenSize: "16",

touchId: true,

touchBar: true

}

let Macbook = {

screenSize: "13"

}

// updating prototype

Macbook.__proto__ = MacbookPro;

MacbookPro.__proto__ = // {constructor: ƒ, __defineGetter__: ƒ, __defineSetter__: ƒ, hasOwnProperty: ƒ, __lookupGetter__: ƒ, …}

Macbook.__proto__ // {screenSize: "16", touchId: true, touchBar: true}

console.log(`My macbook screen size is ${Macbook.screenSize}`); // My macbook screen size is 13

console.log(`Do my macbook have touchid ${Macbook.touchId}`); // Do my macbook have touchid

Whenever we try to access a property on the instance, the engine first searches locally to see if the property is defined on the object itself. if it can't find the property we're trying to access, the engine walks down the prototype chain through the __proto__ property!

Prototype methods, objects without __proto__

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The __proto__ is considered outdated and somewhat deprecated (in browser-only part of the JavaScript standard)

Object.create(proto[, descriptors]) creates an empty object with given proto as __proto__ and optional property descriptors

Object.getPrototypeOf(obj) returns the `__proto__` of obj

Object.setPrototypeOf(obj, proto) sets the `__proto__` of obj to proto

Things to consider

• We can save memory by adding properties to the prototype that all instances can share it. instead of creating new properties in each instance
• we should not mess up with instance by manipulating __proto__ resulting in a lag in performance
• We can achieve a circular prototype chain. If we try then JS will throw an error TypeError: Cyclic __proto__ value