This is actually the correct object type you should get back from an array. There are three objects in javascript that return “object” – object (go figure), array, and null. Not very useful, yes, i know.

Crockford wrote a helper method to alleviate that issue and return the true type of an object – http://javascript.crockford.com/remedial.html (typeOf() method)

var arr = $A(1,2,3);
if ( !(arr instanceof Array) )
document.write(“!!!shit!!!”);

There is no !!!shit!!! it works!

I spent hours tryiing to do this, trying to shift directly, shifting a copy, trying to pass a c-like &arguments[1]… NOPE!!

Your prototype solution hurts because I NEED TO KNOW JAVASCRIPT BETTER!

My final solution is

function log(prefix, argv)
{
if (typeof(prefix) != “string”) {
var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments); // EUREKA!
logArgs(args,prefix);
} else {
logArgs(arguments,”");
}
}

Thanks a million. I had to write to tell ya YOU helped mankind!

Array isn’t a primitive data type as you noticed that @typeof []@ will return @object@; however, if you do @[].constructor@, you will see that it is an Array.

That last bit doesn’t work for me unless I do

var $A = function(){ return Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments); }

And even the “real” array returned by this won’t actually be an array in the traditional sense.. Arrays in JS are basically just hash maps (objects) that use integers as keys and behave like arrays.. Thus, if you do typeof [] you get ‘object’ back. Quirky, indeed. arguments not being an array can be annoying though.