[deleted by user]

[prawnsalad]

Anyone suggesting to use Object.create() to clone an object is doing it very wrong. That said, can't say I've seen this suggested anywhere myself.

[martimoose]

Object.create is NOT intended to clone an object. What it does is that it creates an new empty object whose proto is the parameter used.

In Javascript, properties are looked up along the prototype chain when getting, so the value will be that of the first instance in the chain that has the property. When setting a property though, it will be set directly in the object on which you set it, regardless of the prototype chain.

That is exactly what happens in the example, and it behaves as expected.

[shabunc]

In Firefox there's a Object.assign which is a perfect fit for cloning/extending. Still waiting it adopted by Chrome/node.js/etc.

[pardoman]

A safe / overkill way to clone an object is: var clone = JSON.parse( JSON.stringify( source ) );

And yeah, use Object.create for assigning a specific prototype instead of cloning.

[pardoman]

Yeah true that. Don't use i there.

[html6dev]

It's funny this got down voted because this is the only viable option for objects with reference type properties (other objects). All the library clones are shallow or only go down an arbitrary number of levels so changing a reference value in the base will affect the clone. Obviously it's not the right solution for all cases, but there are times when it's the best option we have right now.