Question

Would the following make the objects fulfil all characteristics that enums have in JavaScript? Something like:

my.namespace.ColorEnum = {
  RED : 0,
  GREEN : 1,
  BLUE : 2
}

// later on

if(currentColor == my.namespace.ColorEnum.RED) {
  // whatever
}

Or is there some other way I can do this?

Answer 1

Since 1.8.5 it’s possible to seal and freeze the object, so define the above as:

const DaysEnum = Object.freeze({"monday":1, "tuesday":2, "wednesday":3, ...})

or

const DaysEnum = {"monday":1, "tuesday":2, "wednesday":3, ...}
Object.freeze(DaysEnum)

and voila! JS enums.

However, this doesn’t prevent you from assigning an undesired value to a variable, which is often the main goal of enums:

let day = DaysEnum.tuesday
day = 298832342 // goes through without any errors

One way to ensure a stronger degree of type safety (with enums or otherwise) is to use a tool like TypeScript or Flow.

Quotes aren’t needed but I kept them for consistency.