Question

When trying to test prototype functionality, I got this odd result:
Here is my first test:

<script>
function Hello() {
}
var a = new Hello();

Hello.prototype.name = "Fred";
alert(a.name);
</script>

And, here’s the second one:

<script>
function Hello() {
}
var a = new Hello();

Hello.prototype = {
        name : "Fred",
}
alert(a.name);
</script>

I can’t understand why the first will return a alert with “Fred” and the second is “undefined” though these mean the same thing?
Could you help me with it?
Thank you.

Answer 1

The two code snippets are not actually equal.

In the first script you only override Hello.prototype.name, while in the second script you override the whole content of Hello.prototype.