Javascript class inheritance and name of all inheritances?

Question

I have a inheritance chain that goes like Starship -> Capital -> Omega and i would like to to be able to retrieve "Omega" from an object of class Omega.

function Starship(){
}


function Capital(){
    Starship.call(this);
}
Capital.prototype = Object.create(Starship.prototype);


function Omega(){
    Capital.call(this);
}
Omega.prototype = Object.create(Capital.prototype);

var omega = new Omega();


omega instanceof Omega // true
omega instanceof Capital// true
omega instanceof Starship // true    
omega.constructor.name // Starship

Is there a way to retrieve the youngest class that omega is part of, i.e. "Omega" or should i just add something like this.type = "Omega" to the Omega function ?

Answer 1

The constructor property of a prototype object is writable. A quick test shows that changing its value does not change the non-enumerable nature of the property.

So you can change prototype objects' constructor properties to show the youngest constructor used:

    // ...

Capital.prototype = Object.create(Starship.prototype);
Capital.prototype.constructor = Capital;

    // ...

Omega.prototype = Object.create(Capital.prototype);
Omega.prototype.constructor = Omega;

    // ...

new Omega().constructor.name;  // is now "Omega"

Whether this is preferable to defining an object type property on the prototype, instead of changing the constructor value, is a matter of choice and opinion. The question is which of the two options you think would be more maintainable.