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handler.preventExtensions()

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨September 2016⁩.

The handler.preventExtensions() method is a trap for the [[PreventExtensions]] object internal method, which is used by operations such as Object.preventExtensions().

Try it

const monster = {
  canEvolve: true,
};

const handler = {
  preventExtensions(target) {
    target.canEvolve = false;
    Object.preventExtensions(target);
    return true;
  },
};

const proxy = new Proxy(monster, handler);

console.log(monster.canEvolve);
// Expected output: true

Object.preventExtensions(proxy);

console.log(monster.canEvolve);
// Expected output: false

Syntax

new Proxy(target, {
  preventExtensions(target) {
  }
})

Parameters

The following parameter is passed to the preventExtensions() method. this is bound to the handler.

target

The target object.

Return value

The preventExtensions() method must return a Boolean indicating whether or not the operation was successful. Other values are coerced to booleans.

Many operations, including Object.preventExtensions(), throw a TypeError if the [[PreventExtensions]] internal method returns false.

Description

>

Interceptions

This trap can intercept these operations:

Or any other operation that invokes the [[PreventExtensions]] internal method.

Invariants

The proxy's [[PreventExtensions]] internal method throws a TypeError if the handler definition violates one of the following invariants:

  • The result is only true if Reflect.isExtensible() on the target object returns false after calling handler.preventExtensions().

Examples

>

Trapping of preventExtensions

The following code traps Object.preventExtensions().

const p = new Proxy(
  {},
  {
    preventExtensions(target) {
      console.log("called");
      Object.preventExtensions(target);
      return true;
    },
  },
);

console.log(Object.preventExtensions(p));
// "called"
// false

The following code violates the invariant.

const p = new Proxy(
  {},
  {
    preventExtensions(target) {
      return true;
    },
  },
);

Object.preventExtensions(p); // TypeError is thrown

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile Server
Chrome Edge Firefox Opera Safari Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet WebView Android WebView on iOS Bun Deno Node.js
preventExtensions 49 12 22 36 10 49 22 36 10 5.0 49 10 1.0.0 1.0 6.0.0

See also

© 2005–2025 MDN contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Proxy/Proxy/preventExtensions