How can I merge properties of two JavaScript objects dynamically?

Question

ECMAScript 2018 Standard Method

You would use object spread:

let merged = {...obj1, ...obj2};

merged is now the union of obj1 and obj2. Properties in obj2 will overwrite those in obj1.

/** There's no limit to the number of objects you can merge.
 *  Later properties overwrite earlier properties with the same name. */
const allRules = {...obj1, ...obj2, ...obj3};

Here is also the MDN documentation for this syntax. If you're using babel you'll need the babel-plugin-transform-object-rest-spread plugin for it to work.

ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) Standard Method

/* For the case in question, you would do: */
Object.assign(obj1, obj2);

/** There's no limit to the number of objects you can merge.
 *  All objects get merged into the first object. 
 *  Only the object in the first argument is mutated and returned.
 *  Later properties overwrite earlier properties with the same name. */
const allRules = Object.assign({}, obj1, obj2, obj3, etc);

(see MDN JavaScript Reference)

---

Method for ES5 and Earlier

for (var attrname in obj2) { obj1[attrname] = obj2[attrname]; }

Note that this will simply add all attributes of obj2 to obj1 which might not be what you want if you still want to use the unmodified obj1.

If you're using a framework that craps all over your prototypes then you have to get fancier with checks like hasOwnProperty, but that code will work for 99% of cases.

Example function:

/**
 * Overwrites obj1's values with obj2's and adds obj2's if non existent in obj1
 * @param obj1
 * @param obj2
 * @returns obj3 a new object based on obj1 and obj2
 */
function merge_options(obj1,obj2){
    var obj3 = {};
    for (var attrname in obj1) { obj3[attrname] = obj1[attrname]; }
    for (var attrname in obj2) { obj3[attrname] = obj2[attrname]; }
    return obj3;
}

jQuery also has a utility for this: http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.extend/.

Taken from the jQuery documentation:

// Merge options object into settings object
var settings = { validate: false, limit: 5, name: "foo" };
var options  = { validate: true, name: "bar" };
jQuery.extend(settings, options);

// Now the content of settings object is the following:
// { validate: true, limit: 5, name: "bar" }

The above code will mutate the existing object named settings.

---

If you want to create a new object without modifying either argument, use this:

var defaults = { validate: false, limit: 5, name: "foo" };
var options = { validate: true, name: "bar" };

/* Merge defaults and options, without modifying defaults */
var settings = $.extend({}, defaults, options);

// The content of settings variable is now the following:
// {validate: true, limit: 5, name: "bar"}
// The 'defaults' and 'options' variables remained the same.

The Harmony ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) specifies Object.assign which will do this.

Object.assign(obj1, obj2);

Current browser support is getting better, but if you're developing for browsers that don't have support, you can use a polyfill.

I googled for code to merge object properties and ended up here. However since there wasn't any code for recursive merge I wrote it myself. (Maybe jQuery extend is recursive BTW?) Anyhow, hopefully someone else will find it useful as well.

(Now the code does not use Object.prototype :)

Code

/*
* Recursively merge properties of two objects 
*/
function MergeRecursive(obj1, obj2) {

  for (var p in obj2) {
    try {
      // Property in destination object set; update its value.
      if ( obj2[p].constructor==Object ) {
        obj1[p] = MergeRecursive(obj1[p], obj2[p]);

      } else {
        obj1[p] = obj2[p];

      }

    } catch(e) {
      // Property in destination object not set; create it and set its value.
      obj1[p] = obj2[p];

    }
  }

  return obj1;
}

An example

o1 = {  a : 1,
        b : 2,
        c : {
          ca : 1,
          cb : 2,
          cc : {
            cca : 100,
            ccb : 200 } } };

o2 = {  a : 10,
        c : {
          ca : 10,
          cb : 20, 
          cc : {
            cca : 101,
            ccb : 202 } } };

o3 = MergeRecursive(o1, o2);

Produces object o3 like

o3 = {  a : 10,
        b : 2,
        c : {
          ca : 10,
          cb : 20,
          cc : { 
            cca : 101,
            ccb : 202 } } };