[javascript] Object comparison in JavaScript

The following algorithm will deal with self-referential data structures, numbers, strings, dates, and of course plain nested javascript objects:

Objects are considered equivalent when

• They are exactly equal per === (String and Number are unwrapped first to ensure 42 is equivalent to Number(42))
• or they are both dates and have the same valueOf()
• or they are both of the same type and not null and...
  • they are not objects and are equal per == (catches numbers/strings/booleans)
  • or, ignoring properties with undefined value they have the same properties all of which are considered recursively equivalent.

Functions are not considered identical by function text. This test is insufficient because functions may have differing closures. Functions are only considered equal if === says so (but you could easily extend that equivalent relation should you choose to do so).

Infinite loops, potentially caused by circular datastructures, are avoided. When areEquivalent attempts to disprove equality and recurses into an object's properties to do so, it keeps track of the objects for which this sub-comparison is needed. If equality can be disproved, then some reachable property path differs between the objects, and then there must be a shortest such reachable path, and that shortest reachable path cannot contain cycles present in both paths; i.e. it is OK to assume equality when recursively comparing objects. The assumption is stored in a property areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34, which is deleted after use, but if the object graph already contains such a property, behavior is undefined. The use of such a marker property is necessary because javascript doesn't support dictionaries using arbitrary objects as keys.

function unwrapStringOrNumber(obj) {
    return (obj instanceof Number || obj instanceof String 
            ? obj.valueOf() 
            : obj);
}
function areEquivalent(a, b) {
    a = unwrapStringOrNumber(a);
    b = unwrapStringOrNumber(b);
    if (a === b) return true; //e.g. a and b both null
    if (a === null || b === null || typeof (a) !== typeof (b)) return false;
    if (a instanceof Date) 
        return b instanceof Date && a.valueOf() === b.valueOf();
    if (typeof (a) !== "object") 
        return a == b; //for boolean, number, string, xml

    var newA = (a.areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34 === undefined),
        newB = (b.areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34 === undefined);
    try {
        if (newA) a.areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34 = [];
        else if (a.areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34.some(
            function (other) { return other === b; })) return true;
        if (newB) b.areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34 = [];
        else if (b.areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34.some(
            function (other) { return other === a; })) return true;
        a.areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34.push(b);
        b.areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34.push(a);

        var tmp = {};
        for (var prop in a) 
            if(prop != "areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34") 
                tmp[prop] = null;
        for (var prop in b) 
            if (prop != "areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34") 
                tmp[prop] = null;

        for (var prop in tmp) 
            if (!areEquivalent(a[prop], b[prop]))
                return false;
        return true;
    } finally {
        if (newA) delete a.areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34;
        if (newB) delete b.areEquivalent_Eq_91_2_34;
    }
}