JavaScript Object seal() Method

JavaScript Object.seal() method is used to seal an object. Sealing an object does not allow new properties to be added and marks all existing properties as non-configurable. Although values of present properties can be changed as long as they are writable. The object to be sealed is passed as an argument and the method returns the object which has been sealed.

Syntax:

Object.seal(obj)

Parameters:

• obj: It is the object which has to be sealed.

Return Value: Object.sealed() returns the object that was passed to the function.

Examples of the above function are provided below.

Example 1: In this example, the object "ob2" has been assigned properties of object "obj1" and it is been sealed so that new values cannot be added. The value of property 1 for obj2 has been updated since sealing an object allows existent properties to be changed.

// creating an object constructor and assigning values to it 
const obj1 = { property1: 'initial_data' };

// creating a second object which will seal the properties 
//of the first object
const obj2 = Object.seal(obj1);

// Updating the properties of the frozen object
obj2.property1 = 'new_data';

// Displaying the properties of the  frozen object 
console.log(obj2.property1);

OUTPUT: 

"new_data"

Example 2: In this example, the object "obj" has been assigned "prop: function" which has been later deleted since the object "obj wasn't sealed. After that, a new object "o" has been assigned the sealed values of "obj" which prevented it from deletion but allowed updations in the existing properties.

// creating an object constructor and assigning values to it 
let obj = { prop: function () { }, name: 'adam' };

// Displaying the properties of the object created 
console.log(obj);

// Updating the properties of the object 
obj.name = 'billy';
delete obj.prop;

// Displaying the updated properties of the object 
console.log(obj);

// Sealing the object using object.seal() method
let o = Object.seal(obj);

// Updating the properties of the object 
delete obj.prop;

// Displaying the updated properties of the object 
console.log(obj);

// Updating the properties of the sealed object 
obj.name = 'chris';

// Displaying the properties of the  frozen object 
console.log(obj);

Output: 

Object { prop: function () {}, name: "adam" }
Object { name: "billy" }
Object { name: "billy" }
Object { name: "chris" }

Applications: 

• Object.seal() is used for sealing objects and arrays, to make an object immutable.

Exceptions: 

• It causes a TypeError if the argument passed is not an object.
• Deleting or adding properties to a sealed object will fail or throw a TypeError.
• Converting a data property to an accessor or vice versa will throw a TypeError.

We have a complete list of Javascript Object methods, to check those please go through this JavaScript Object Complete Reference article.

Supported Browsers:

• Google Chrome 6.0 and above
• Internet Explorer 9.0 and above
• Mozilla 4.0 and above
• Opera 12 and above
• Safari 5.0 and above
• Edge 12 and above