Object.freeze Function (JavaScript)

2017-1-18 2 minutes to read Contributors

Prevents the modification of existing property attributes and values, and prevents the addition of new properties.

Syntax

Object.freeze(object)

Parameters

object
Required. The object on which to lock the attributes.

Return Value

The object that is passed to the function.

Exceptions

If the object argument is not an object, a TypeError exception is thrown.

Remarks

The Object.freeze function does the following:

Makes the object non-extensible, so that new properties cannot be added to it.
Sets the configurable attribute to false for all properties of the object. When configurable is false, the property attributes cannot be changed and the property cannot be deleted.
Sets the writable attribute to false for all data properties of the object. When writable is false, the data property value cannot be changed.

For more information about how to set property attributes, see Object.defineProperty Function. To obtain the attributes of a property, you can use the Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor Function.

The following related functions prevent the modification of object attributes.

Function	Object is made non-extensible	`configurable` is set to `false` for each property	`writable` is set to `false` for each property
Object.preventExtensions	Yes	No	No
Object.seal	Yes	Yes	No
`Object.freeze`	Yes	Yes	Yes

The following functions return true if all of the conditions marked in the following table are true.

Function	Object is extensible?	`configurable` is `false` for all properties?	`writable` is `false` for all data properties?
Object.isExtensible	Yes	No	No
Object.isSealed	No	Yes	Yes
Object.isFrozen	No	Yes	Yes

Example

The following example illustrates the use of the Object.freeze function.

// Create an object that has two properties.  
var obj = { pasta: "spaghetti", length: 10 };  

// Freeze the object.  
Object.freeze(obj);  

// Try to add a new property, and then verify that it is not added.   
    obj.newProp = 50;  
    document.write(obj.newProp);  
    document.write("<br/>");  

// Try to delete a property, and then verify that it is still present.   
delete obj.length;  
document.write(obj.length);  
document.write("<br/>");  

// Try to change a property value, and then verify that it is not changed.   
obj.pasta = "linguini";  
document.write(obj.pasta);  

// Output:  
// undefined  
// 10  
// spaghetti

Requirements

Supported in the following document modes: Internet Explorer 9 standards, Internet Explorer 10 standards, and Internet Explorer 11 standards. Also supported in Store apps (Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.1). See Version Information.
Not supported in the following document modes: Quirks, Internet Explorer 6 standards, Internet Explorer 7 standards, Internet Explorer 8 standards.