Could someone explain this (strange) behavior? Why is the length in the first example 3 and not 2, and most importantly, why is the length in the second example 0? As long as the keys are numerical, length works. When they are not, length is 0. How can I get the correct length from the second example? Thank you. a = []; a["1"] = {"string1":"string","string2":"string"}; a["2"] = {"string1":"string","string2":"string"}; alert(a.length); // returns 3 b = []; b["key1"] = {"string1":"string","string2":"string"}; b["key2"] = {"string1":"string","string2":"string"}; alert(b.length); // returns 0