handler.deleteProperty()

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.deleteProperty() method is a trap for the [[Delete]] object internal method, which is used by operations such as the delete operator.

Try it

const monster1 = {
  texture: "scaly",
};

const handler1 = {
  deleteProperty(target, prop) {
    if (prop in target) {
      delete target[prop];
      console.log(`property removed: ${prop}`);
      // Expected output: "property removed: texture"
    }
  },
};

console.log(monster1.texture);
// Expected output: "scaly"

const proxy1 = new Proxy(monster1, handler1);
delete proxy1.texture;

console.log(monster1.texture);
// Expected output: undefined

Syntax

new Proxy(target, {
  deleteProperty(target, property) {
  }
})

Parameters

The following parameters are passed to the deleteProperty() method. this is bound to the handler.

target: The target object.
property: A string or Symbol representing the property name.

Return value

The deleteProperty() method must return a Boolean indicating whether or not the property has been successfully deleted. Other values are coerced to booleans.

Many operations, including the delete operator when in strict mode, throw a TypeError if the [[Delete]] internal method returns false.

Description

Interceptions

This trap can intercept these operations:

The delete operator: delete proxy[foo] and delete proxy.foo
Reflect.deleteProperty()

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

Invariants

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

A property cannot be reported as deleted, if it exists as a non-configurable own property of the target object. That is, if Reflect.getOwnPropertyDescriptor() returns configurable: false for the property on target, then the trap must return a falsy value.
A property cannot be reported as deleted, if it exists as an own property of the target object and the target object is non-extensible. That is, if Reflect.isExtensible() returns false on target, and Reflect.getOwnPropertyDescriptor() returns a property descriptor for the property on target, then the trap must return a falsy value.

Examples

Trapping the delete operator

The following code traps the delete operator.

const p = new Proxy(
  {},
  {
    deleteProperty(target, prop) {
      if (!(prop in target)) {
        console.log(`property not found: ${prop}`);
        return false;
      }
      delete target[prop];
      console.log(`property removed: ${prop}`);
      return true;
    },
  },
);

p.a = 10;
console.log("a" in p); // true

const result1 = delete p.a; // "property removed: a"
console.log(result1); // true
console.log("a" in p); // false

const result2 = delete p.a; // "property not found: a"
console.log(result2); // false

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript® 2026 Language Specification # sec-proxy-object-internal-methods-and-internal-slots-delete-p