How do I tell difference between object and string in javascript?

Question

I have a javscript function (actually a jQuery plugin) which I will want to call as either

myFunction("some input");

or

myFunction({ "prop": "value 1", "prop2": "value2" });

How do I, in the function, tell the two apart?

In other words, what should go in the if conditions below?

if (/* the input is a string */)
{
    // Handle string case (first of above)
}
else if (/* the input is an object */)
{
    // Handle object case (second of above)
}
else
{
    // Handle invalid input format
}

I have jQuery at my disposal.

Update: As noted in an answer, if the input is new String('some string'), typeof(input) will return 'object'. How do I test for new String(''), so I can handle that the same way as ''?

Answer 1

if( typeof input === 'string' ) {
    // input is a string
}
else if( typeof input === 'object' ) {
    // input is an object
}
else {
    // input is something else
}

Note that typeof considers also arrays and null to be objects:

typeof null === 'object'
typeof [ 1, 2 ] === 'object'

If the distinction is important (you want only "actual" objects):

if( typeof input === 'string' ) {
    // input is a string
}
else if( input && typeof input === 'object' && !( input instanceof Array ) ) {
    // input is an object
}
else {
    // input is something else
}