For browsers supporting Object.keys() you can simply do:
Object.keys(a).length;
Otherwise (notably in IE < 9), you can loop through the object yourself with a for (x in y)
loop:
var count = 0;
var i;
for (i in a) {
if (a.hasOwnProperty(i)) {
count++;
}
}
The hasOwnProperty
is there to make sure that you’re only counting properties from the object literal, and not properties it “inherits” from its prototype.