John Resig’s Inheritance

John Resig, the creator of jQuery, has created this JavaScript inheritance code. I am still using it now to simplify several aspects of my Hound CMS.

/* Simple JavaScript Inheritance
 * By John Resig https://johnresig.com/
 * MIT Licensed.
 */
// Inspired by base2 and Prototype
(function() {
    var initializing = false,
    fnTest = /xyz/.test(function() {xyz;}) ? /\b_super\b/ : /.*/;

    // The base Class implementation (does nothing)
    this.Class = function(){};

    // Create a new Class that inherits from this class
    Class.extend = function(prop) {
        var _super = this.prototype;

        // Instantiate a base class (but only create the instance, don't run the init constructor)
        initializing = true;
        var prototype = new this();
        initializing = false;

        // Copy the properties over onto the new prototype
        for (var name in prop) {
            // Check if we're overwriting an existing function
            prototype[name] = typeof prop[name] == "function" && typeof _super[name] == "function" && fnTest.test(prop[name]) ? (function(name, fn) {
                return function() {
                    var tmp = this._super;

                    // Add a new ._super() method that is the same method but on the super-class
                    this._super = _super[name];

                    // The method only need to be bound temporarily, so we remove it when we're done executing
                    var ret = fn.apply(this, arguments);
                    this._super = tmp;

                    return ret;
                };
            })(name, prop[name]) : prop[name];
        }

        // The dummy class constructor
        function Class() {
            // All construction is actually done in the init method
            if (!initializing && this.init) {
                this.init.apply(this, arguments);
            }
        }

        // Populate our constructed prototype object
        Class.prototype = prototype;

        // Enforce the constructor to be what we expect
        Class.constructor = Class;

        // And make this class extendable
        Class.extend = arguments.callee;

        return Class;
    };
})();

Usage:

var Person = Class.extend({
    init: function(isDancing) {
        this.dancing = isDancing;
    },
    dance: function() {
        return this.dancing;
    }
});

var Ninja = Person.extend({
    init: function() {
        this._super(false);
    },
    dance: function() {
        // Call the inherited version of dance()
        return this._super();
    },
    swingSword: function() {
        return true;
    }
});

var p = new Person(true);
p.dance(); // => true

var n = new Ninja();
n.dance(); // => false
n.swingSword(); // => true

// Should all be true
p instanceof Person && p instanceof Class &&
n instanceof Ninja && n instanceof Person && n instanceof Class

The original article, complete with explanations and examples, is here: https://johnresig.com/blog/simple-javascript-inheritance/.

Ciprian on Tuesday, January 16, 2018 in Methods, Events and Scopes | Last modified on Wednesday, April 30, 2025

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