Problem with objects that have a .length property

[eamonn.kearns@…]

If you create a class with a .length property and try to bind events to it, jQuery throws an Exception.

​http://www.jsfiddle.net/Cg8tf/

The problem exists as a result of the makeArray function, which assumes that if the object has a length property, it is an array.

[Rick Waldron]

Tested in IE6-7-8, Firefox 3.6.12 - 4b10, Opera 9.x 10.x, Chrome latest and Safari 5

Did I miss the one you're getting errors in?

​http://www.jsfiddle.net/rwaldron/Cg8tf/4/

[eamonn.kearns@…]

Yes, you missed it. Uncomment the declaration of the "this.length = 0" and it stops working, as per the comment directly above the commented out "this.length = 0".

I can even post the lines of code that cause this problem to exist at all, if you like.

[jitter]

Less convoluted ​test case

As noted by the reporter, the problem lies in the .makeArray function.

[eamonn.kearns@…]

I fiddled around with potential solutions. typeof gives "object" on arrays, so that won't work, but using the .constructor property seems to.

​http://jsfiddle.net/dqqCv/1/

Now, I haven't tested this in either Safari or IE, but it works in both Firefox and Chrome (which leads me to suspect it will work in Safari considering they both use Webkit, so it should also work in Konqueror).

[Rick Waldron]

Why not use jQuery.type()?

Replying to eamonn.kearns@…:

I fiddled around with potential solutions. typeof gives "object" on arrays, so that won't work, but using the .constructor property seems to.

​http://jsfiddle.net/dqqCv/1/

Now, I haven't tested this in either Safari or IE, but it works in both Firefox and Chrome (which leads me to suspect it will work in Safari considering they both use Webkit, so it should also work in Konqueror).

Also...

alert-less:

​http://www.jsfiddle.net/rwaldron/UJzgM/4/

[jitter]

Replying to rwaldron:

Also...

alert-less:

​http://www.jsfiddle.net/rwaldron/UJzgM/4/

:-/ ummm.. ok, sorry to have bothered you with my nasty alerts from 1999

[anonymous]

Replying to rwaldron:

Why not use jQuery.type()?

Because I am not 100% familiar with the API and was offering any potential solution, knowing that if there was a jQuery specific one that you guys would know how to do it.

[Rick Waldron]

@jitter,

I'm looking forward to seeing how this is handled.

[eamonn.kearns@…]

Replying to rwaldron:

@jitter,

I'm looking forward to seeing how this is handled.

Likewise.

[kflorence]

I think this may be the culprit: ​https://github.com/jquery/jquery/commit/715d1c5a30cc4986018bbf063713f14c34c3e258

[Robert Katić]

A possible solution would be to limit which types are considered array-like in .merge(). These would be: arrays, jQuery objects, nodelists, and arguments.

​http://forum.jquery.com/topic/jquery-isarraylike-for-consistency#14737000002236285

[Robert Katić]

​https://github.com/rkatic/jquery/compare/rkatic:master...%238104

I thing dropping support for array-like plain objects is not a big deal. It is not used internally. Not sure for the rest of the world.

Personally, I am not in favor of fixing this at all. But if needed...

[Robert Katić]

After more testing, I realized that my patch fails with arguments objects. So ignore it.

[anonymous]

I made some fixes to the patch. It's again available if wanted: ​https://github.com/rkatic/jquery/compare/rkatic:master...%238104

[john]

Alright, we're not going to pursue this then.