unique id - JavaScript Object Id

Question

Do JavaScript objects/variables have some sort of unique identifier? Like Ruby has object_id. I don't mean the DOM id attribute, but rather some sort of memory address of some kind.

Answer 1

If you want to lookup/associate an object with a unique identifier without modifying the underlying object, you can use a WeakMap:

// Note that object must be an object or array,
// NOT a primitive value like string, number, etc.
var objIdMap=new WeakMap, objectCount = 0;
function objectId(object){
  if (!objIdMap.has(object)) objIdMap.set(object,++objectCount);
  return objIdMap.get(object);
}

var o1={}, o2={}, o3={a:1}, o4={a:1};
console.log( objectId(o1) ) // 1
console.log( objectId(o2) ) // 2
console.log( objectId(o1) ) // 1
console.log( objectId(o3) ) // 3
console.log( objectId(o4) ) // 4
console.log( objectId(o3) ) // 3

Using a WeakMap instead of Map ensures that the objects can still be garbage-collected.