Question

When you add a property to an object, whether it is present in the prototype or not, the property is added to the object itself, which will henceforth have it as its own property. If there is a property by the same name in the prototype, this property will no longer affect the object. The prototype itself is not changed.

Rabbit.prototype.teeth = "small";
console.log(killerRabbit.teeth);
// → small
killerRabbit.teeth = "long, sharp, and bloody";
console.log(killerRabbit.teeth);
// → long, sharp, and bloody
console.log(blackRabbit.teeth);
// → small
console.log(Rabbit.prototype.teeth);
// → small

The following diagram sketches the situation after this code has run. The Rabbit and Object prototypes lie behind killerRabbit as a kind of backdrop, where properties that are not found in the object itself can be looked up.

Overriding properties that exist in a prototype is often a useful thing to do. As the rabbit teeth example shows, it can be used to express exceptional properties in instances of a more generic class of objects, while letting the nonexceptional objects simply take a standard value from their prototype.

It is also used to give the standard function and array prototypes a different toString method than the basic object prototype.

console.log(Array.prototype.toString ==
            Object.prototype.toString);
// → false
console.log([1, 2].toString());
// → 1,2

Calling toString on an array gives a result similar to calling .join(",") on it—it puts commas between the values in the array. Directly calling Object.prototype.toString with an array produces a different string. That function doesn’t know about arrays, so it simply puts the word “object” and the name of the type between square brackets.

console.log(Object.prototype.toString.call([1, 2]));
// → [object Array]

This is a book about getting computers to do what you want them to do. Computers are about as common as screwdrivers today, but they contain a lot more hidden complexity and thus are harder to operate and understand. To many, they remain alien, slightly threatening things.