Description

Unlike what common belief suggests (perhaps due to other programming languages like delete in C++), the delete operator has nothing to do with directly freeing memory. Memory management is done indirectly via breaking references. See the memory management page for more details.

The delete operator removes a given property from an object. On successful deletion, it will return true, else false will be returned.

However, it is important to consider the following scenarios:

  • If the property which you are trying to delete does not exist, delete will not have any effect and will return true.
  • If a property with the same name exists on the object's prototype chain, then, after deletion, the object will use the property from the prototype chain (in other words, delete only has an effect on own properties).
  • Any property declared with var cannot be deleted from the global scope or from a function's scope.
    • As such, delete cannot delete any functions in the global scope (whether this is part from a function definition or a function expression).
    • Functions which are part of an object (apart from the global scope) can be deleted with delete.
  • Any property declared with let or const cannot be deleted from the scope within which they were defined.
  • Non-configurable properties cannot be removed. This includes properties of built-in objects like Math, Array, Object and properties that are created as non-configurable with methods like Object.defineProperty().

The following snippet gives a simple example:

const Employee = {
  age: 28,
  name: 'abc',
  designation: 'developer'
}

console.log(delete Employee.name);   // returns true
console.log(delete Employee.age);    // returns true

// When trying to delete a property that does
// not exist, true is returned
console.log(delete Employee.salary); // returns true


Non-configurable properties

When a property is marked as non-configurable, delete won't have any effect, and will return false. In strict mode this will raise a TypeError. 

const Employee = {};
Object.defineProperty(Employee, 'name', { configurable: false });

console.log(delete Employee.name);  // returns false

var, let, and const create non-configurable properties that cannot be deleted with the delete operator: 

var nameOther = 'XYZ';

// We can access this global property using:
Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(window, 'nameOther');

// output: Object {value: "XYZ",
//                  writable: true,
//                  enumerable: true,
//                  configurable: false}

// Since "nameOther" is added using with the
// var keyword, it is marked as "non-configurable"

delete nameOther;   // return false

In strict mode, this would have raised an exception.


Strict vs. non-strict mode

When in strict mode, if delete is used on a direct reference to a variable, a function argument or a function name, it will throw a SyntaxError. Therefore, to avoid syntax errors in strict mode, you must use the delete operator in the form of delete object.property or delete object['property']. 

Object.defineProperty(globalThis, 'variable1', { value: 10, configurable: true, });
Object.defineProperty(globalThis, 'variable2', { value: 10, configurable: false, });

// SyntaxError in strict mode.
console.log(delete variable1); // true

// SyntaxError in strict mode.
console.log(delete variable2); // false

function func(param) {
  // SyntaxError in strict mode.
  console.log(delete param); // false
}

// SyntaxError in strict mode.
console.log(delete func); // false


Cross-browser notes

As of modern ECMAScript specification, the traversal order of object properties is well-defined and stable across implementations. However, in the case of Internet Explorer, when one uses delete on a property, some confusing behavior results, preventing other browsers from using simple objects like object literals as ordered associative arrays. In Explorer, while the property value is indeed set to undefined, if one later adds back a property with the same name, the property will be iterated in its old position--not at the end of the iteration sequence as one might expect after having deleted the property and then added it back.

If you want to use an ordered associative array with support of old runtimes, use a Map object if available (through a polyfill, for example), or simulate this structure with two separate arrays (one for the keys and the other for the values), or build an array of single-property objects, etc.