Jonathon Simpson

How JavaScript Works

Master the Basics of JavaScript and Modern
Web App Development
Jonathon Simpson
Belfast, Antrim, UK

ISBN 978-1-4842-9737-7 e-ISBN 978-1-4842-9738-4

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4

© Jonathon Simpson 2023

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Introduction
JavaScript is one of the most used programming languages in the world.
When JavaScript was first created, it was a useful tool for adding
interactivity to web pages. Since then, it has evolved to power back-end
servers, massive front-end web applications, and even iPhone and
Android applications via tools like Electron and Tauri.
While JavaScript has matured as a language its complexity seems to
have increased. What started as simple scripts inside HTML tags now
seems to involve compile steps via TypeScript and frameworks like
React, Vue.js, or Svelte. For those getting started in JavaScript, it can be
overwhelming, even though these tools are just an additional level of
abstraction which ultimately compiles down into vanilla JavaScript.
In this book, we’ll learn how JavaScript works from the bottom up,
which will prepare you for everything web development and JavaScript-
led app development can throw at you. We’ll also explain some of the
quirks you’ll find in JavaScript and how many of them have come to be
due to JavaScript’s long and varied history.
After that, we’ll cover JavaScript’s unique approach to inheritance
before moving into more complicated topics like memory management,
classes, APIs, and web workers. We’ll explore how the weakly typed
system JavaScript employs has both benefits and downsides.
As a fundamental part of the web stack, and with more people using
it every day, there has never been a better time to learn JavaScript. This
book will guide you through everything you need to know, so that you
can master modern web app development.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1:​Introduction to JavaScript
JavaScript Fundamentals
JavaScript’s Type Classification
What Is JavaScript Used For?​
Writing JavaScript
Summary
Chapter 2:​Code Structure and Logical Statements
Getting Started
Common Code Conventions
Semicolons
Spacing
Variable and Function Naming
JavaScript Variables
Setting Variables with let
Setting Variables with var
Setting Variables with const
Defining Variables Without Values
Assignment Operators
Variable Concatenation
JavaScript Comments
Logical Statements
If…else Statements
Switch Statements
Block Scoping with Logical Statements
Conditional Operator in Variables
 Logical Statement Comparison Operators
Logical Statement Logical Operators
Summary
Chapter 3:​Introduction to Objects, Arrays
Arrays
Getting the Length of an Array
Getting the Last Element of an Array
Array Manipulation Methods
Push and Unshift
Pop and Shift
Splice
Objects
Accessing Object Data
Object Mutability
Spread Syntax or the “Three Dots”
Prototype-Based Programming
Prototypical Inheritance
[[Prototype]] vs.​prototype (and _​_​proto_​_​)
Object Shallow and Deep Copies
Summary
Chapter 4:​Loops and Iterables
Loops
Break and Continue in Loops
Loop Labels
Iteration
Iterables and For Loops
 Array forEach methods
String Iteration
Iteration Protocol
Objects Are Not Iterable by Default
Summary
Chapter 5:​References, Values, and Memory Management
Introduction
Stacks
The Event Loop
The Heap
Object and Reference Equality
Summary
Chapter 6:​Functions and Classes
Introduction to Functions
Running Arguments with the “Three Dots”
Alternative Ways to Call Functions
Unnamed Function Expressions
Anonymous Functions
Functions with Arrow Notation
Functions and the “this” Keyword
Sloppy Mode
Arrow Notation Functionality with this
Calling Functions with Context
Constructor Functions in JavaScript
Additional Function Methods
Getters and Setters
 Generator Functions
Classes
Classes and Constructor Functions
Class Methods
Class Method Types
Class Inheritance via Extends
Summary
Chapter 7:​Types
Primitive Types
Primitive Wrappers
Using Wrappers to Create Types
The Number Type and NaN
Number Type Mathematics
Mathematical Methods
The Date Type
The Symbol Type
Truthy and Falsy Types
Truthy and Falsy Operators
Logical AND Operator
Logical OR Operator
Nullish Coalescing
Optionality
Summary
Chapter 8:​Manipulating and Interacting with HTML
Window and Document Objects
The Window Object
 The Document Object Model
Selecting HTML Elements
The Order of HTML
NodeLists and HTMLCollections
Manipulating HTML After Selection
Adding Events to HTML Elements
Creating a Modal Window
Creating a Counter
Event Types
Drag and Drop
The e variable
Creating New Elements with JavaScript
Manipulating CSS with JavaScript
HTMLElements and Changing Styles in JavaScript
Adding New Style Sheets to HTML Pages
Setting CSS Variables
Getting CSS Properties and HTML Dimensions
Summary
Chapter 9:​Maps and Sets
Sets
Modifying Sets
Checking Set Membership
Checking Set Size
Merging Sets
Set Iteration and Values
Maps
 Retrieving Map Properties
Checking for Key Existence on a Map
Telling How Big a Javascript Map Is
Iterating, Merging, and Accessing Maps
Keys and Values in Maps
Serialization of Maps in JavaScript
Summary
Chapter 10:​Fetching Data, APIs, and Promises
What Are APIs?​
Understanding HTTP
RESTful Design
Understanding APIs Through a Node.​JS Web Server
Testing Endpoints with Postman
The Benefits of APIs
Sending Data to APIs with JSON
The fetch Function
A Deep Dive into Fetch Options
Asynchronicity and Promises
Promise Methods:​then, finally, and catch
The await Keyword
Useful Promise Methods
Summary
Chapter 11:​Introduction to Web APIs
Web APIs
Frequently Used Web APIs
URL API
 Web Storage API
Web Notifications API
History API
Summary
Chapter 12:​Errors and the Console
The Console Object
Console Errors, Debugs, Warnings, and Info
Console Timing
Console Counting
Other Useful Console Methods
Console Grouping
Console Tables
Errors and Exceptions
try…catch
Generating Errors
Handling Specific Errors
Summary
Chapter 13:​The Canvas
Introduction
Drawing and Images
Drawing Rectangles
Drawing Circles
Drawing Triangles
Drawing Images
Drawing Text
Interactivity and Creating a Drawing Application
 Animations
Summary
Chapter 14:​Web Workers and Multithreading
Introduction
Using Web Workers
Sending Messages to and from Web Workers
Restrictions on Web Workers
Conclusion
Index
About the Author
Jonathon Simpson
studied at UCL and currently works in product development at Revolut,
a global neobank and financial technology company that offers banking
services. He has over 15 years of web development experience working
on a wide range of products and services. Jonathon also owns and
operates a popular software engineering blog focusing on JavaScript
and web development.
About the Technical Reviewer
Russ Ferguson
is a web application developer living in Brooklyn, New York. He has
worked on projects for organizations such as Ann Taylor, MTV, DC
Comics, and LG. Currently, he is the Vice President at Bank of America
managing a team of Angular developers, building internal applications.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_1

1. Introduction to JavaScript
Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

JavaScript is a programming language that first appeared in 1995 as the

scripting language for the Netscape browser. Since then, it has evolved
into one of the most used programming languages in the world. While
its initial goal was to add interactivity to websites, it has since come to
do just about everything, including creating desktop apps and back-end
APIs.
JavaScript is everywhere, and over the years, many frameworks
have been built on top of it, such as jQuery, React, Vue.js, and Svelte. All
of this can make learning JavaScript intimidating, as there are often
many different ways to achieve the same thing.
In this book, we’ll be covering how JavaScript works at a
fundamental level. That will then make it is easier to understand how
frameworks like React and Vue.js work. We’ll discuss why things work
the way they do in JavaScript and the various quirks that come with
years of ongoing development on the language.
JavaScript today broadly falls into two major categories:
Client-side code, which we’ll refer to as “the front end,” which is
included via HTML files and adds interactivity to websites. Client-
side code is loaded and processed directly on someone’s web
browser or device. In practice, this means writing a .js file or HTML
file containing JavaScript and loading it directly into your
web browser.
Server-side code, which we’ll refer to as “the back end,” which is
used for writing web servers. This kind of code is written on web
 servers and can be used to create things like APIs which the end user
never directly sees. It uses a runtime to execute the code on web
servers. The most common runtime used for this is called Node.js.
Server side code is loaded and processed on a server that is separate
from the user’s device.
Everything we discuss in this book will be applicable to both front
end and back end, but our focus will be on front-end JavaScript since
that’s where JavaScript started. We’ll sometimes touch on back-end
JavaScript where necessary so that certain concepts can be more easily
understood.

JavaScript Fundamentals
JavaScript is based on a language standard called ECMAScript. How
JavaScript should exactly work is documented in a specific standard
called ECMA-262. Since ECMAScript does not provide any tools to
compile JavaScript, every implementation of JavaScript creates its own
version of JavaScript. That includes your browser and back-end
compilers like Node.js.
For the most part, these implementations follow ECMA-262, but
since each implementation is done by different teams, there can be
some minor discrepancies or different feature sets depending on the
browser or implementation.
In this chapter, we will be covering how you can set yourself up to
start using JavaScript, including how to set up JavaScript projects when
using Node.js. In future chapters, we will explore how to write
JavaScript code.

JavaScript’s Type Classification

How a language is typed usually gives us a broad idea of how it works.
Like most other languages, JavaScript lets you define “variables” to
store data, and these variables have types. “Type” refers to the kind of
data being used. For example, a number is of type Number, and a
mixture of characters and/or numbers is referred to as having a type
called String.
 If you have used other languages, JavaScript may seem different
since it is weakly typed. That means that while other languages
require you to explicitly mention in the code what type of data different
variables are, JavaScript does not. JavaScript is also often referred to as
dynamically typed, meaning it will dynamically interpret what type of
data is based on the context it finds it in.
To understand this better, let’s look at how variables are defined in
JavaScript. Usually, we define them like this:

let x = "Some String"

let y = 5
let z = false

You’ll see that no types are defined here. For example, we did not
have to mention that "Some String" was a String. JavaScript
determines types based on context – so it will take x to be a String
simply because we put its value in quotation marks. Similarly, it will
dynamically interpret y as being of type Number since it lacks
quotation marks and z as being of type Boolean since it has no
quotation marks and uses the keyword false.
This makes JavaScript quite easy to pick up, but quite hard to
master. The lack of strong typing can mean that you unknowingly create
bugs in your software since JavaScript will not always throw errors if
unexpected types show up, and even worse, JavaScript may dynamically
interpret types incorrectly in some cases.
For more complex applications with lots of test cases, developers
often reach for TypeScript instead of JavaScript for this reason.
TypeScript is JavaScript, but extended. It’s strongly typed, meaning
types must be mentioned in your code.

What Is JavaScript Used For?

As we mentioned in the introduction, JavaScript can be compiled and
used in two major ways. The first is to create front-end interactive
experiences, right in your browser. The second is as back-end server
code. Front-end JavaScript is rendered by the browser inside of web
pages, while back-end server code requires a runtime like Node.js,
which compiles the code you write to run it directly on the server.
 When inside the browser, some of the major things JavaScript can
do are
Adding, changing, or deleting CSS/HTML when a user interacts with
something.
Creating new HTML tags programmatically.
Tracking user action and producing feedback to the user (such as
showing a pop-up when a user clicks on something).
Storing data for the user locally via local storage or cookies.
Creating single-page user experiences where no page refreshing is
needed.
On the back end, the main use cases are
Creating routes/URL endpoints on a server and dictate what happens
if a user navigates there.
Creating routes/URL endpoints for APIs (application programming
interfaces), so we can send and receive data to and from the server.
Building WebSocket servers, which users can interact with from their
front-end experience. These can be used for making things like chat
rooms.
Compressing pre-rendered web pages for a faster web experience.
Manipulating data sent to the server (sometimes via WebSocket or
API) and store it in a back-end database.

Writing JavaScript
JavaScript on the front end is found inside HTML on web pages. As such,
familiarity with HTML is quite important when we work with
JavaScript. To create your first file containing JavaScript, you can start
by making a .html file. We usually call the home page of a website
index.html when building websites, so for this example, I created a
new HTML file called index.html.
.html files can be opened by any web browser, such as Google
Chrome. You can edit your HTML file by opening it up in a text or code
editor (Notepad included), and puting in this standard “boilerplate”
HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My First JavaScript</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello World</p>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
// This is JavaScript!
</script>
</body>
</html>

Note You can use any text editor (like Notepad) to create HTML
and even JavaScript. While that works fine, it’s better to use a
professional code editor instead. One of the most popular code
editors used in the software development community is VS Code.
You can download it via https://code.visualstudio.com/.
This will color code your JavaScript and give you a lot of other useful
features.

In the preceding example, we inserted a <script> tag within our

HTML body. The <script> tag is where our JavaScript goes:

<script type="text/javascript">
// This is JavaScript!
</script>

Since JavaScript applications can get quite long, you may see this
<script> tag substituted out for a file instead. This can be useful
since it lets us separate our HTML and JavaScript into different files.
For example, if we had a separate JavaScript file called
myScript.js stored in the same folder as index.html file, we
could load that into our HTML document by using the src attribute on
the script tag:

<script src="myScript.js"></script>
 You may also see JavaScript embedded into HTML via the attributes
of HTML tags. For example, JavaScript can be put inside a button to
cause something to happen when a user clicks that button:

<button onclick="//JavaScript here"></button>

Setting Up a Code Editor

Throughout this book, I will be writing code using Visual Studio Code or
VS Code. If you do not have a preferred code editor, I would strongly
recommend using VS Code, which you can download via the official
website (https://code.visualstudio.com).
Although it is possible to build a software career through Notepad,
it’s not recommended. Modern code editors like VS Code give you a ton
of useful features, including code highlighting which makes it easier to
read what you’re writing. They also come with more advanced features
like built-in terminals, for when you need those things.
If you download VS Code, you’ll be greeted with a screen that looks
like the one shown in Figure 1-1. From there, you’ll be able to make
new files and folders for storing your projects in.
Figure 1-1 After you install VS Code, open the application. By going to File ➤ Open Folder… or
clicking “Open Folder” in VS Code and finding your “My JavaScript” folder

Starting Up Our Code

The fun thing about writing front-end JavaScript is that once you save
your .html file, you can load it directly in any web browser to test it
out.
Try it out by opening index.html in your web browser, either by
dragging it into the window or by opening it via File ➤ Open File….
To see your code in the browser itself, you can right-click on the
web page anywhere and choose “Inspect” in Google Chrome. If Chrome
is not your browser of choice, similar functions exist in other browsers
too. Using “Inspect” will also let you see supplementary information
about what you’ve created, as Figure 1-2 shows.
Figure 1-2 “Inspect” or “Inspect Element” lets you view more information about your code in
the web browser

“Inspect” or “Inspect Element” is a vital tool in web development.

Throughout this book, we’ll use the console tab within developer tools
to test out code and see the results of code we run. As such, it’s very
useful to familiarize yourself with this display now.

How to Get Started with Writing Back-End JavaScript

We’ve now discussed how JavaScript can be run inside a web
browser like Google Chrome. Before we go any further, let’s briefly look
at how we run back-end JavaScript too, which we’ll occasionally touch
on in this book. Back end JavaScript runs directly on your computer or a
web server instead of inside a web browser. To run JavaScript like this,
you need to use a runtime like Node.js.
Node.js can be downloaded and installed on your computer via the
official Node.js website (https://nodejs.org/en/download).
After it has been installed, you’ll be able to run JavaScript code directly
from a terminal window by executing your .js file.
You can do that by opening the terminal or command line on your
computer, which is accessible on MacOS via the terminal app or on
Windows via the “cmd” application.
Running the node command lets you compile and execute
JavaScript files. Let’s try it out – create a file called index.js in a
code editor or Notepad, and add the following JavaScript code before
saving:
console.log("Hello World!")

Then you can execute this file by using the node command in
terminal:

node index.js

This will produce an output which looks something like what is

shown in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3 Running a JavaScript script from the command line is as simple as using the “node”
command followed by the directory link to the file you want to run

Note If you saved your index.js file in another directory, you will
need to provide the full directory link. To navigate directories, use
the cd command. For example, if your index.js file was in
“/Users/JohnDoe/Documents/”, you would run cd
/Users/JohnDoe/Documents/ and only after that, run node
index.js.
Node.js applications like this are frequently used to create APIs,
which we will cover in much more detail later in the book.
Creating Node.js JavaScript Projects
In the above example, we executed a single file using Node.js It is more
common, though, to create a Node.js project when you start something
new in Node.js. This is also done via terminal or the cmd. The first step
is to make a new folder and navigate to it using the cd command.
In this example, I made a folder called “node-project” on my desktop
and navigated to it using the following command in Terminal:

cd ~/Desktop/node-project

After that’s done, you can use the npm init command, which is
installed along with Node.js, to initiate your project. You can see how
that looks in Figure 1-4.

Figure 1-4 When using the npm init command, you will be asked to enter some information
about your new project as shown earlier
 All you have to do now is type in answers to each question and
press enter. For example, the first question asks what you want to call
your project – so type in the name of your project, and press enter.
Your folder will now contain a package.json file summarizing
the information you provided. Since you’ve initialized your Node.js
project, you’ll now be able to run other commands like npm install
now, which lets you install third party dependencies.

JavaScript Support
Traditional software is usually written by a developer and downloaded
onto a user’s computer or device. This is the case with things like video
games, apps on your phone, or big applications like Adobe Photoshop.
When writing code in JavaScript, things are very different. The
software the user installs is the browser, not your website! The browser
then loads your web page within it. Since everyone has their own
browser preference, and not everyone keeps their browsers up to date,
JavaScript that works in one browser can oftentimes not work in
another. For example, Firefox may support a new JavaScript feature, but
Chrome may not. The worst thing about this is you can’t really use a
new JavaScript feature on the front end until a majority of browsers
have implemented it.
If you are coming from other languages, then worrying about
browser support will be a foreign concept to you. In JavaScript, it is a
real thing. In recent times, since most browsers are “evergreen”
(meaning they auto-update), this has become less of a problem than it
used to be, but sometimes different browsers just disagree on what
should and shouldn’t be implemented. Promising new features may end
up implemented in just Chrome, just Safari, or just Firefox.
Throughout this book, we’ll only be looking at JavaScript with broad
browser support, meaning you don’t need to worry about if you can or
can’t use it. However, when you start exploring JavaScript in your own
time, and especially when looking at more advanced functionality, it’s
important to check if browsers support it. You can find good browser
support tables on websites like https://caniuse.com/ or
https://developer.mozilla.org/.
An example of a browser support table can be found in Figure 1-5,
for the GPU feature.
Figure 1-5 Not all browsers support every new JavaScript feature. In the preceding example,
only Chrome and Edge have support. Other browsers only have partial support or none at all.
That means if you tried to implement this on a website, only some users could use it!

Summary
In this chapter, we’ve looked at how to set up your workspace to begin
writing code with JavaScript. We’ve discussed what JavaScript is
typically used for and some of the pitfalls or differences between it and
other languages. Now that we’ve covered the basics let’s look at how to
write JavaScript code.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_2

2. Code Structure and Logical

Statements
Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

In the previous chapter, we covered the fundamental definitions of

JavaScript and where we write it. Now that we’ve discussed the basics,
let’s start learning about how we write JavaScript code. In this
chapter, we’ll cover the fundamentals, which includes code structure,
logical statements, and variables. Mastering these concepts is a
requirement to writing useful JavaScript code. Where relevant, we’ll
also be diving deeper into how these basic concepts actually work, so
that you have a deeper understanding of the code you are writing.

Getting Started
As we go through this chapter, it will be good to have a work space
where you can write and test your JavaScript. For these purposes, I’ve
created a folder called “javascript-project” in my documents
folder. Within that, I have created two files – index.html and
index.js.
Since our focus will be writing JavaScript, your HTML file can be
relatively simple:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My First JavaScript</title>
 </head>
<body>
<p>Hello World</p>
<script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Any JavaScript code you want to try out can be put in index.js.
For now, I’ve only put a simple console.log method:

console.log("Hello World!")

The console.log method is really useful. It’s used extensively for

debugging, and we’ll be using it throughout this book. When it’s run, it
logs a message to your browser’s console, so that you can see the
output of your code easily. You can find the console by right-clicking
anywhere on your web page and selecting “Inspect.” Console logs can
then be viewed under the “Console” tab, as shown in Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-1 Right-clicking in the web browser and selecting “Inspect” in Google Chrome (or
other browsers) allows you to access the console log. If you do this with the index.html file we
defined before, you’ll see “Hello World!” written here. The console is a powerful tool used for
debugging. When we use the console.log method, it shows up here!

Common Code Conventions

Before we start writing real code, let’s first consider some basic code
conventions. As is the case in most programming, developers of
JavaScript try to follow some common conventions when writing code.
This section is largely opinionated, but it does provide you with
guidelines on how you should go about writing JavaScript. It will also
let you know how we will go about writing code throughout the book.

Semicolons
For readability, JavaScript is sometimes written with a semicolon at the
end of each line. For example:

console.log("Hello World!");
console.log("Goodbye World!");

However, this is not necessary, and it’s also just as common to see
the same code written without semicolons:

console.log("Hello World!")
console.log("Goodbye World!")

We can do this because JavaScript will intuitively “figure out” where

semicolons should go. It even works if you do an accidental line break
where an expression seems incomplete. For example, if a line ends with
a + symbol, JavaScript will assume that the expression must continue
onto the next line, meaning the code will still work as expected:

console.log(5 +
6)

For the code in this book, we will be omitting the semicolon unless
it is really needed.

Spacing
One of the most vigorously fought over code conventions is whether to
use tabs or spaces for indenting. While there is essentially no right or
wrong answer to this, it is important to be consistent. If you use tabs,
then always use tabs for indents and likewise for spaces.
Unlike Python, indents play no functional role in JavaScript, but they
do serve to make your code more readable when others look at it.
While it is certainly fine to use tabs, spaces are going to cause you less
of a headache. That’s because different ecosystems and operating
systems can be configured to handle tabs differently, whereas spaces
are consistently sized across all systems.
In this book, we will indent with four spaces. Here is an example of
how that will look:

let myVariable = 5

if(myVariable === 5) {
console.log("The variable is 5!")
}

Note If you use the tab key instead of spaces in VS Code to indent
your code, you can configure VS Code to automatically convert these
to spaces if you want it to. The configuration option is found by
opening any file and selecting the “Spaces/Tab Size” option in the
bottom right-hand corner.

Variable and Function Naming

When it comes to naming functions and variables, you’ll come across
three different paradigms: camel case, pascal case, and underscores:
Camel case refers to naming a variable where every word after the
first has a capital letter, for example, thisIsCamelCase.
Pascal case is the same, except the first letter is capitalized too. For
example, ThisIsPasalCase.
Underscoring refers to separating words with underscores. For
example, these_are_underscored.
 When naming variables and functions, all of these are fine to use,
but again, it is important to be consistent. If you decide to use camel
case, then make sure you use it everywhere. For the purposes of this
book, we will be using camel case.

JavaScript Variables
As we begin writing JavaScript, the first thing you’re going to need to
learn about are variables. Variables are a way to assign a fixed name to
a data value. There are three ways to create a variable in JavaScript,
using three different keywords:
var
let
const
All JavaScript variables are case-sensitive, so myVariable is
different from MYVARIABLE. In JavaScript nomenclature, we
usually say that we “declare” variables.

Setting Variables with let

Most variables in JavaScript are set with let. A variable set with let
starts with the keyword let, followed by the variable name and an
equals sign, and then the value of your variable. In the following
example, we create a variable called myVariable, and console log it so
that it appears in the browser’s console:

let myVariable = 5
console.log(myVariable)

Note It may seem like we are putting data into the variable, but a
better way to think about it is we are making data and then pointing
the keyword “myVariable” at the data we just made.

It’s not possible to assign a variable with let twice. If you think of your
variable as pointing to some data, it’s easy to see why – the same
variable can’t point to two different pieces of data. For example, the
following code will produce the error, which is shown in Figure 2-2.

let myVariable = 5
let myVariable = 10
console.log(myVariable)

Figure 2-2 Variables defined with let cannot be defined multiple times. If you try to, it will
produce an error like the preceding one

So variables defined with let cannot be redefined again. They can,

however, be reassigned to a new piece of data by mentioning them
again without the let keyword. You can see that in the following
example, which console logs “10,” since we changed the value of
myVariable:

let myVariable = 5
myVariable = 10
console.log(myVariable)

It may seem like the data has changed (or “mutated”), but actually
we’ve just made new data somewhere and pointed our variable to that
instead. The data “5” still exists somewhere. It just has no variable
pointing to it anymore. When a piece of data is no longer referenced in
our code, JavaScript may remove it from memory using something
called “garbage collection.” This allows JavaScript to free up memory
when data is no longer used.

Block Scoping with Variables

In the previous example we saw that it is not possible to define the
same variable, but there are exceptions to this. That’s because variables
defined with let are block-scoped. Scope confines functionality,
variable names, and values to certain sections of our code.
 Block scopes are created with curly brackets {}. In most scenarios,
we create block scopes by defining new functions or logical statements.
Since standalone curly brackets also create a new block scope, a
variable can be set twice simply by defining it again inside { } curly
brackets:

let myVariable = 5

{
let myVariable = 10
console.log(myVariable)
}

console.log(myVariable)

Even though we created the same variable twice, no error is thrown,

and that’s because one is assigned to a new block scope. The first
variable is assigned to the “global” scope of our program, while the
second is assigned only to the “curly bracket” scope. The outcome of
this can be seen in Figure 2-3.

Figure 2-3 While using let, our console produces two different lines, 5 and 10. This is
because let is assigned to its current scope – so setting myVariable to 10 in a separate scope
does not affect the original variable. If we used var instead, both lines would say 10 since
scope is ignored
Setting Variables with var
Most variables are set with let, but you may also see the keyword var
being used to set variables sometimes. Using var is the original way to
set variables in JavaScript. It is valuable to know this exists, but it is
generally not recommended that you use it over let.
Setting a variable with var looks a lot like what we did with let.
For example, here is a variable called myVariable, with a value of 5:

var myVariable = 5

The reason why we use let rather than var is because var has a
few quirks that let does not. For example, you can define a variable
twice with var, and no errors will be thrown:

var myVariable = 5
var myVariable = 10
console.log(myVariable)

Variables defined with var are also not block-scoped, meaning your
code can produce some odd results when redefining variables in block
scopes with var.
You may be wondering, “Why does JavaScript have two ways of
defining variables when let is a more controlled version of var?” The
answer to that is pretty simple, and it’s because var used to be the only
way to define variables in JavaScript, and a lot of legacy code uses it.
Later on, JavaScript created a better way to define variables using let,
but var couldn’t be removed since it would break many older code
bases.

Setting Variables with const

The final variable type we will cover is const. When we defined
variables with let, we talked about how a variable can be reassigned
to another value:

let myVariable = 5
myVariable = 10
console.log(myVariable)

Remember, we don’t actually change or “mutate” the data here – we

just create new data and “re-point” our variable to that new data
source.
While this works for let, it will not work for const. Variables
defined with const are constants and cannot be reassigned:

const myConst = 5
console.log(myConst)

If you try to reassign the value of a const variable, you’ll get an

error instead.

const myConst = 5
myConst = 10
console.log(myConst)

Using const to define variables is better when you’re able to use it.
To understand why, you can think about the example we
discussed earlier where we used let to reassign a variable from “5” to
“10”. We talked about how the value “5” still exists in memory unless it
gets garbage collected. Since const variables cannot be changed,
garbage collection never has to run. That means less cleanup is
required, resulting in more efficient memory utilisation.

Mutation of const Variables

Variables cannot be reassigned with const, but they can be mutated.
That’s because reassignment and mutation are not the same thing.
When we reassign a variable, no data changes – but it is possible to
change underlying data in JavaScript using mutation instead. In
JavaScript, mutation of primitive values like numbers, strings, and
booleans is not possible, but objects can be mutated.
We will cover how arrays and objects work in more depth in the
next chapter. For now, all you need to understand is that arrays and
objects are containers of data. An array can be defined as shown in the
following example:
const myArray = [ "some", "set", "of", "content" ]
console.log(myArray)

Arrays can contain a lot of data, and we can push new data to an
array using a special method called push:

const myArray = [ "some", "set", "of", "content" ]

myArray.push("new data!")
console.log(myArray)

By using push we can mutate our array, meaning the underlying

data changes and the data continues to be referenced and stored in the
same place. In other words, we did not create new data and point our
variable somewhere else, but instead mutated the original data.
This is confusing to beginners since the array was pointed to by a
const variable, so it would therefore be assumed that since the const
variable is a constant, the data inside must always remain constant.
This is not the case in JavaScript. So, in summary, while reassignment
must remain constant in a const variable, data mutation is fine.

Defining Variables Without Values

It is also possible to define variables that point to nowhere. If you try to
console log a variable with no value assigned, you will get undefined
as a result:

let myVariable
console.log(myVariable)

This is sometimes done when a variable does not have a value when
you declare it but may be assigned a value later on in the code. When
many variables need to be declared without values, they can be
separated by commas. In the following example, we define three
variables with the let keyword:

let myVariable, myOtherVariable, myFinalVariable

 Although comma notation like this is more commonly used with
variables that have no value, you can declare variables with values this
way too:

let myVariable = 5, myOtherVariable = 4,

myFinalVariable = 3

Assignment Operators
Now that we’ve covered the basics of setting variables, let’s look at
assignment operators. These allow us to modify an existing variable, by
changing its value. For example, consider this variable:

let x = 5

Suppose we wanted to multiply x by 5. One way is to reassign x to 5

* 5, but a better way is to use an assignment operation. The reason it’s
better is because x may not always be 5, so this is particularly useful if
we want to change the value of variables based on conditions (which
we will cover in more detail in the following).
To multiply x by 5, we use the *= assignment operator:

let x = 5
x *= 5
console.log(x) // Console logs 25 (5 multiplied by
5 = 25)

There are many other assignment operators. They are shown in the
following example:

let x = 5
x *= 5
console.log(x) // Console logs 25 (5 multiplied by
5 = 25)

x += 5
console.log(x) // Console logs 30 (25 plus 5 = 30)
x /= 5
console.log(x) // Console logs 6 (30 divided by 5
= 6)

x -= 1
console.log(x) // Console logs 5 (6 minus 1 = 5)

x %= 4
console.log(x)
/*
Console logs 1 (if you divide 5 by 4, the
remainder is 1.
% is the remainder operator
*/

Variable Concatenation
When we have variables that consist of at least one string, using the +
operator causes the strings to become concatenated. To understand
this, take a look at the following example, where we concatenate two
strings into a new variable:

let myVariable = "hello"

let myOtherVariable = "world"
let combine = myVariable + myOtherVariable //
"helloworld"

If we need a space too – we can add that with another +:

let myVariable = "hello"

let myOtherVariable = "world"

// "hello world"
let combine = myVariable + " " + myOtherVariable

Just be careful, since if you try to use a + with numbers, it will add
them up instead!

let myVariable = 5
let myOtherVariable = 5

let combine = myVariable + myOtherVariable // 10

This brings us to a new quirk caused by JavaScript’s dynamic typing.

If a number is in quotation marks, it is assumed to be a string. Adding a
number and string results in a new concatenated string instead of a
calculation:

let myVariable = "5"

let myOtherVariable = 5

let combine = myVariable + myOtherVariable // "55"

Another way to combine string variables is with a special method

called concat. This is a method that exists on all strings, which will
add to the end of a string any number of new things that we separate
with commas:

let myVariable = "hello"

myVariable.concat(" ", "world", "!") // hello
world!

Different types of data have different built-in methods, which we’ll

look at in much more detail in future chapters.

Template Literals
Another final way to concatenate more elegantly is through a type of
functionality called template literals. Template literals are still strings,
but they use the backtick "`" to transform any content into a template
literal. Template literals have the added benefit of allowing line breaks
– something that numbers and quotation marks do not. They also allow
for substitution. Here is an example of a particularly messy template
literal with line breaks throughout:

let myVariable = `hello world

!!
how are you?`
 Template literals like the preceding one will be taken with line
breaks and white space included – which means you’ll avoid loss of this
content when using them. They also allow for substitution. Adding a
variable in ${} will substitute it into a template literal:

let someWord = "world"

let myVariable = `hello ${someWord}!` // hello
world!

JavaScript Comments
You may have already noticed that in the preceding code, I used double
slashes to leave some comments on what the code does. As our code
gets more complicated, it’s useful to leave messages to yourself or other
developers about what is going on. For this purpose, comments are
used.
A comment in JavaScript can take one of two forms. The first looks
like this:

// I am a comment!

And the second looks like this, where the comment is enclosed in /*
and */:

/* I am a comment! */

Both work the same, but the second allows for multiline comments.
Comments have no bearing on the functionality of your code and
instead can provide useful information on what’s going on. For
example, we could comment our previous code like so:

// This code will console log myConst

const myConst = 5
console.log(myConst)

Logical Statements
Now that we’ve covered variables, you’ll probably be wondering how
we can use them. Logical statements are one of the ways we can start to
put our variables to good use.
Logical statements are used when we want to check if something is
true or false and then run a particular action based on that outcome. If
a logical statement is found to be true, everything within its “block
scope” is executed. Likewise, if a logical statement is false, then the
block scope will never run at all. In other words, logical statements
allow us to build conditionality into our programs.

If…else Statements
if...else are perhaps one of the most commonly used logical
statements around. All they do is check if a statement is true. If it is,
they run some code, else, they run some other code. In the following
example, we check if myVariable is set to 5. If it is, we show “The
variable is 5!” in the console. If it’s not, then we show alternative text.
You can view this code running in Figure 2-4, where I run it directly
from the console in my web browser. You could also try this out by
updating your index.js file from earlier:

// We have set myVariable to 5

let myVariable = 5

if(myVariable === 5) {
console.log("The variable is 5!")
}
else {
console.log("The variable is not 5.")
}
Figure 2-4 Since myVariable is 5, the statement myVariable === 5 is always true. So the
block of code within the first if statement is executed, and the else statement never fires

We can add more conditions to our code by using else if after an

if statement. In the following example, we check for a third condition,
where myVariable could be 6:

// We have set myVariable to 5

let myVariable = 5

if(myVariable === 5) {
console.log("The variable is 5!")
}
else if(myVariable === 6) {
myVariable = 7
console.log("The variable is 6, but I set it
to 7!")
}
else {
console.log("The variable is not 5.")
}

As you can see in the else if condition, any code can be written
in the block scope created by a logical statement. In else if, we
reassigned myVariable to have a value of 7.
If the output of an if statement is one line of code, you can omit the
curly brackets and write it all on one line of code as shown in the
following example. This also applies to else if and else:

// We have set myVariable to 5

let myVariable = 5

if(myVariable === 5) console.log("The variable is

5!")

Our examples so far have dealt with strict equality – meaning we

are using the triple equals sign. There are more ways we can check
variable values, though! We’ll cover them all in this chapter.

Switch Statements
Another common way to create conditionality in your JavaScript is
through switch statements. They take a single variable and check if it
equals certain values using the case keyword to define the value it
might equal and a break to declare the end of that clause. For
example:

// Let's set x to 5
let x = 5

switch(x) {
case 5:
console.log("hello")
break
case 6:
console.log("goodbye")
break
}

In the previous example, we have two clauses: one where x equals

5, in which case we console log “hello,” and another where it equals 6,
where we console log “goodbye.” It is important to have a break after
each case clause since if you don’t, all cases will run after the one that is
correct! For example, the following code will console log both “hello”
and “goodbye” – which is quite confusing:

// Let's set x to 5
let x = 5

switch(x) {
case 4:
console.log("4!")
case 5:
console.log("hello")
case 6:
console.log("goodbye")
}
Figure 2-5 Since we didn’t use the keyword “break” in the preceding code and x is equal to 5,
both “hello” and “goodbye” are console logged. The “break” keyword is important for declaring
the end of a clause in a switch statement.

This “fall-through” mechanism where we leave out a break statement

can sometimes be used to your advantage, however. In the following
example, both Apples and Strawberries are red, so console logging the
same thing for both is not really an issue:

let x = "Apples"

switch(x) {
case "Apples":
case "Strawberries":
console.log("Apples and Strawberries can
be red.")
break
case "Bananas":
console.log("Bananas are yellow.")
}

Defaulting to a Clause with Switch Statements

Switch statements make use of the keyword default to declare what
needs to happen if none of the cases are matched. In the following
example, the console will show “goodbye” since no clause is correct:

// Let's set x to 5
let x = 5

switch(x) {
case 4: {
console.log("hello")
break
}
default: {
console.log("goodbye")
break
}
}

Equality with Switch Statements

Like our example before with if…else, switch statements require
“strict” equality. That means under the hood, they are using the triple
equals sign (===). Strict equality means that both the value and type of
the data must match for a clause to be true. This can sometimes be
confusing in JavaScript since types are inferred. In the following
example, both 5 and “5” have the same value but different types. As
such, only “goodbye” is shown in the console:

// Let's set x to 5
let x = 5

switch(x) {
case "5": {
console.log("hello")
break
}
case 5: {
console.log("goodbye")
break
}
}

Block Scoping with Logical Statements

Earlier, we discussed how block scopes affect let and const variables.
Standard if...else statements by default have block scopes; as they
use curly brackets {}, switch statements do not, by themselves,
create block scopes. We can add block scope to our switch statements
by enclosing each clause in curly brackets if we need to.
The outcome of the following code is an error since we reassign x
multiple times: Uncaught SyntaxError: Identifier 'x'
has already been declared:

// Let's set x to 5
let x = 5

switch(x) {
case 5:
let x = 6
console.log("hello")
break
case 6:
let x = 5
console.log("goodbye")
break
}

To avoid this error, a block scope can be created by adding curly

brackets {} to our switch statement:

// Let's set x to 5
let x = 5

switch(x) {
case 5: {
let x = 6
console.log("hello")
break
}
case 6: {
let x = 5
console.log("goodbye")
break
}
}

Conditional Operator in Variables

So far we’ve covered statements that convey conditionality, but
conditionality can also be extended to variable declarations themselves.
This is done via a special operator called the conditional operator.
 You can test any statement inside a variable by following it with a
question mark. This is then followed by two values separated by a
colon. The first value after the question mark will be what shows if the
statement is true, and the second will be returned if the statement is
false. In the following example, y becomes “Big Number” since x is
indeed bigger than 3:

let x = 5

// Returns "Big Number"

let y = x > 3 ? "Big Number" : "Small Number"

Logical Statement Comparison Operators

In our previous examples, we’ve covered basic logical statements using
strict equality (===). For example, if...else statements:

if(myVariable === 5)

and switch statements, which always use strict equality.:

switch(variable)

That means both the value and the type of data have to match for
the statement to be true. For example, '5' is not the same type as 5
even though the values are the same since the types are different:

let myVariable = 5
if(myVariable === 5) // True!
if(myVariable === "5") // False!

Besides strict equality, there are lots of other ways we can compare
data in logical statements. In the following example, we use the more
than operator to check if myVariable is more than specific values. The
outcome of this code can be seen in Figure 2-6.

let myVariable = 5
if(myVariable > 4) console.log("Hello World") //
True!
if(myVariable > 6) console.log("Hello World 2!")
// False!

Figure 2-6 Other operators can be used to test logical statements. In the preceding example,
we use the more than operator to check if myVariable meets certain conditions

We can check for “regular” equality too, which ignores type, using
the double equals (==) operator:

let myVariable = 5
if(myVariable == '5') // True!

The symbols we use to compare data in logical statements are

generally known as “operators.” All the operators we have access to are
summarized in Table 2-1.
Table 2-1 JavaScript operators for logical comparisons

Operators Definition Example

=== Strict equality. Both the type and value of the data must be the 5 === 5 //
same. True
5 === '5' //
False
== Regular equality. Only the value must be the same. 5 == 5 //
True
5 == '5' //
True
Operators Definition Example
> More than. The value on the left must be more than the right. 6 > 5 //
True
5 > 5 //
False
4 > 5 //
False
>= More than or equal to. The value on the left must be more than 6 >= 5 //
or equal to the one on the right. True
5 >= 5 //
True
4 >= 5 //
False
< Less than. The value on the left must be less than the one on 6 < 5 //
the right. False
5 < 5 //
False
4 < 5 //
True
<= Less than or equal to. The value on the left must be less than or 6 <= 5 //
equal to the one on the right. False
5 <= 5 //
True
4 <= 5 //
True
!== Strict not equal to. The two values should not match value and 5 !== 5 //
type. False
5 !== '5' //
True
5 !== 4 //
True
!= Regular not equal to. The two values should not match value. 5 !== 5 //
False
5 !== '5' //
False
5 !== 4 //
True
Logical Statement Logical Operators
Sometimes your logical statements may require that more than one
statement is true. For example, checking if something is more than
something AND less than something else. Three additional logical
operators exist to combine statements, which can be found in Table 2-2.
Table 2-2 JavaScript logical operators

Operators Definition
&& AND – something AND something else is true.
|| OR – something OR something else is true.
! NOT – something is NOT true.

In the following example, I am checking if a variable x is more than

5, but also less than or equal to 10 using the && AND operator:

let x = 6
if(x > 5 && x <= 10) {
console.log('Hello World!')
}

Meanwhile, in this example, we check if x is more than 5 OR more

than 3, using the || OR operator:

let x = 6
if(x > 5 || x > 3) {
console.log('Hello World!')
}

We can also use the NOT operator to let us invert a result. For
example, in the following we check if x is NOT more than 5 (by inverting
x > 5):

let x = 6
if(!(x > 5)) {
console.log('Hello World!')
}
Summary
In this chapter, we’ve covered some of the most important fundamental
concepts of JavaScript. This has included some of the best practices for
writing your code. We’ve also looked at how you can use variables to
point to data and the difference between mutating data versus
reassigning it. We’ve learned how to update those variables via
assignment operators and how they can be used in a variety of logical
statements. We have also discussed comments and how to add them to
your code. All of these concepts are really important and required for
the following chapters. As such, having a good grasp on this is critical to
writing more complicated JavaScript.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_3

3. Introduction to Objects, Arrays

Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

Now that we’ve now looked at the fundamental concepts of JavaScript,

let’s move onto one of the most important data types in JavaScript, that
being objects. Objects are widely used in JavaScript as a store of data.
They differ from other types of data in that they are the only type of
data which is mutable.
In this chapter, we’ll be covering the basics of how objects work.
We’ll also be covering arrays, which are a special type of object with
specific features. As we get more comfortable with objects and arrays,
we’ll look at some more complicated concepts such as prototype-based
programming and object inheritability.

Arrays
To start this chapter, let’s look at arrays. Arrays are a special type of
object which are used to store one-dimensional data. They have no
explicitly defined keys. Arrays are usually defined inside [] square
brackets which is different from objects, which we’ll cover in more
detail later, since they use { } curly brackets. In the following example,
we create an array that contains a mixture of different types of data,
including an object:

let myArr = [ "one", 2, "three", { "value": "four"

} ]
 The preceding square bracket notation we used is a type of
“syntactic sugar.” Syntactic sugar is another name for a cleaner and
nicer way of writing something which we have to write all the time.
Underneath the square brackets is a “constructor” called array. The
previous example can be rewritten this way using the Array
constructor:

let myArr = new Array("one", 2, "three", {

"value": "four" })

The new keyword tells JavaScript to create a new instance of an

object. That’s also what the square brackets short hand does too. Since
we create arrays all the time in JavaScript, it’s much more common to
use the square bracket [] notation. The square bracket notation is
formally named the “array literal.”
An array can contain any type of data – even things like functions.
While arrays do not have explicitly defined keys, they do have
numbered indices. Each array is zero-indexed – so to access the first
item, we use the key is 0, and the second is 1, and others. To access
specific array elements, we use square brackets again. The following
example shows you how that works:

let myArr = [ "banana", "apple", "squid", "cake",

"pear" ]

console.log(myArr[0]) // shows "banana"

console.log(myArr[2]) // shows "apple"
console.log(myArr[3]) // shows "squid"

Getting the Length of an Array

When we asked JavaScript to create a new instance of an Array, it also
caused the array to inherit many standard methods and properties. All
of these methods and properties have specific utilities.
One example of these is the length property, which is used to get
the size of an array. Methods and properties on arrays can be accessed
by using a dot, followed by that property or method’s name. For
example, to get the size of a given array, we use the .length method
directly on that array.
Let’s try putting the length of myArray into a new variable called
arrayLength. When we console log this, it’ll show 4:

let myArr = [ "one", 2, "three", { "value": "four"

} ]
let arrayLength = myArr.length

console.log(arrayLength) // shows 4

Getting the Last Element of an Array

Knowing the length of an array is frequently used in the process of
getting the last element of an array. Since arrays are zero-indexed, a
common way to get the last element of an array is by using the
.length method with 1 subtracted from it. The reason we subtract 1
is because if you start counting from zero, the last element’s index is
always going to be 1 less than the size of the array:

let myArr = [ "one", 2, "three", "four" ]

let arrayLength = myArr.length

console.log(myArr[myArr.length - 1]) // shows

"four"

The array length here is 4, so subtracting 1 from that number

results in 3, which is the index of the last element in the array.
While you will see this way of getting the last element of an array
everywhere, a more modern and efficient method is to use the array
method, .at(). Again, like length, .at() is predefined on all arrays.

Note on constructor methods All arrays inherit a standard set of

methods, which can be useful for performing common functions.
Similarly, all other main types have constructor methods too – like
strings, numbers, booleans, and objects.
The .at() method works a lot like retrieving an array element with
square brackets. The main difference is that if you use negative
numbers, it starts counting from the opposite end – so .at(-1) also
gets the last element of an array:

let myArr = [ "one", 2, "three", "four" ]

let arrayLength = myArr.length

console.log(myArr.at(-1)) // shows "four"

Note Square brackets are a standard notation in JavaScript arrays,

but at() is a function. We haven’t covered functions yet in detail,
but functions can take arguments. In this case, -1 is the argument
we have used.

Array Manipulation Methods

We’ve now looked at how we can construct and create arrays, but in
JavaScript development, it’s common to also want to mutate or change
arrays. To learn how this works, let’s look at some methods that come
in particularly useful when using arrays. Since objects (and therefore
arrays) are mutable, many of these methods change the array value
itself.

Push and Unshift

When we want to add an item to an array, push and unshift let us do
that at the end and the start of the array, respectively. Adding items to
the end of an array is always faster. The reason it is faster is because
unshift needs to reallocate memory to add elements to the beginning
of the array.
In the following example, push is used to add an item to the end of
any array:

let myArr = [ "banana", "apple", "squid", "cake",

"pear" ]
myArr.push("pear")
console.log(myArr) // [ "banana", "apple",
"squid", "cake", "pear" ]

In the next example, unshift is used to add something the

beginning:

let myArr = [ "banana", "apple", "squid", "cake",

"pear" ]
myArr.unshift("pear")
console.log(myArr) // [ "pear", "banana", "apple",
"squid", "cake", pear" ]

Pop and Shift

While push and unshift both let you add data to the end and
beginning of your array, respectively, pop and shift let you do the
same but for removal. To illustrate this, let’s look at an example. If we
want to remove the value “pear” which we added to the end of our
array, we simply need to run pop() on it:

let myArr = [ "banana", "apple", "squid", "cake",

"pear" ]
myArr.pop()
console.log(myArr) // [ "banana", "apple",
"squid", "cake" ]

Similarly, if we want to remove “banana” from the beginning of the

array, we can use shift():

let myArr = [ "banana", "apple", "squid", "cake" ]

myArr.shift()
console.log(myArr) // [ "apple", "squid", "cake" ]

Splice
Adding and removing elements from the start and end of an array is
useful, but more often than not, we’ll want to change something in the
middle of an array. To do this, we can use another method
called splice(). Unlike the methods we have seen so far, splice()
takes a couple of arguments, although only one is required. Since only
one argument is required, the syntax for splice can look like any of the
following variations:

someArray.splice(start)
someArray.splice(start, end)
someArray.splice(start, end, item1)
someArray.splice(start, end, item1, item2, item3
... itemN)

The arguments we give to splice provide information to the function

on what we want to do. These arguments are defined in the following:
start (required) – This is the position in the array you want to start
the splice at. If it’s a negative number, it will count back from the end
of the array.
end (optional) – This is how many items you want to delete. If you
only want to insert something, then set this to 0. If you don’t put a
number here, then all elements after the start position will be
deleted.
item1 ... itemN (optional) – These are array items that will be
inserted after the start position. You can add as many as you like
here, all comma-separated.
If we only use the first argument in splice, then every element after
a certain point in the array will be deleted, as is shown in the following
example:

let myArr = [ "banana", "apple", "squid", "cake" ]

myArr.splice(1)
console.log(myArr) // [ "banana", "apple" ]

If we define an end value, we can delete items in the middle of an

array instead. For example, let’s delete “apple” and “octopus”:

let myArr = [ "banana", "apple", "squid", "cake" ]

myArr.splice(0, 2)
console.log(myArr) // [ "banana", "cake" ]
 Finally, if we use the arguments after start and end, we can add
new items in specific parts of our array. Let’s add “strawberry” and
“box” in between “banana” and “cake”, using the third and fourth
arguments. Any argument given after the end argument will be added
to the array at the start position:

let myArr = [ "banana", "apple", "squid", "cake" ]

myArr.splice(0, 2)
console.log(myArr) // [ "banana", "cake" ]
myArr.splice(1, 0, "strawberry", "box")
console.log(myArr) // [ "banana", "strawberry",
"box", "cake" ]

Objects
Now that we’ve covered arrays, let’s move onto objects. Objects are
similar to arrays, but they differ in that they have defined keys. Objects
are arguably the most important thing you can understand in
JavaScript, and they lead into more advanced concepts on how we write
and structure our code. In this section, we’ll look into how objects work
and how they are used more broadly in prototypical inheritance, which
is the main programming style in JavaScript. JavaScript objects look a
lot like what are called “Dictionaries” in other languages and consist of
defined key–value pairs. They can be defined within curly brackets {},
as is shown in the following example:

let myObject = {
"key": "value",
"someKey": 5,
"anotherKey" : true
}

This object has three keys and three values assigned to each of
those keys. Keys have to be unique, but values do not, and objects can
be as big as you’d like them to be.
The curly brackets {}, are known as the “object literal” notation –
so as you’d expect, it is the equivalent of writing “new Object” (just
like for Arrays). Since objects have keys, however, if we want to use
the constructor to define an object, we need to write all the keys and
values out separately and attach them to the object, making the object
literal notation infinitely easier to use. In the following example, we
create the same object as we did in our previous example, but we
use the object constructor instead of the object literal:

// Objects defined without the object literal

notation
// are harder to define, since we need to define
each
// key separately.
let myObject = new Object()
myObject.key = "value"
myObject.someKey = 5
myObject.anotherKey = true

You can think of objects as miniature databases of information,

where each unique key references some piece of data. Objects have
these common characteristics:
1.
The keys must be either a string, number, or symbols (a special
unique identifier in JavaScript).
2.
The values can be of any type and contain any data (objects, arrays,
numbers, strings, functions, etc.)
3.
Objects are resizable and can be mutated (unlike other data in
JavaScript).
Remember: Arrays are objects too! So all of these properties apply
to them as well.

Accessing Object Data

Just as we saw with arrays, we can use square brackets to access data
on an object. You can see an illustration of how that works in the
following example. The outcome of this code can also be seen in Figure
3-1.
let myObject = {
"key": "value",
"someKey": 5,
"anotherKey" : true
}
console.log(myObject["key"]) // shows 'value'

Figure 3-1 Using the square bracket notation, we can access the value of any key on an object
in JavaScript

The Dot Notation vs. Square Brackets with Objects

Another way to access object values is by using the dot . instead. This
is shown in the following example:

let myObject = {
"key": "value",
"someKey": 5,
"anotherKey" : true
}
console.log(myObject.key) // shows 'value'

When we use square brackets, we must use quotation marks if the

key is a string ("key", not key), but the same is not true for the dot
notation.
As an example of this, consider the following code. With square
brackets, the keyName variable is used if we omit the quotation marks.
However, when using the dot, JavaScript will look for a key on
myObject called keyName, which of course, returns undefined.
Therefore, both square brackets and dot notation have different utilities
when accessing objects:

let myObject = {
"key": "value",
"someKey": 5,
"anotherKey" : true
}
let keyName = "key"
console.log(myObject[keyName]) // shows "value"
console.log(myObject.keyName) // shows undefined

You can see this code running in Figure 3-2.

Figure 3-2 Using the square bracket notation, we can access the value of any key on an object
in JavaScript

Accessing objects While we are exploring object access here,

we’ve already used objects in Chapters 1 and 2. When we used
console.log, console is the object, and log is a property on the
console object. If you try to console.log console itself, you’ll
be able to see the entire object in your console!

Destructuring Objects
We’ve now covered the many ways you can access data on an object.
Another useful way to do this is by destructuring the
object. Destructuring objects works by allowing us to split the object
into a set of variables, each of which can be used independently. To
illustrate this, let’s look at an example. First, let’s create a simple
object:

const myObj = {
z: 5,
y: 4,
x: 3
}

We can now access parts of this object by destructuring them in into

variables, as shown in the following example:

const myObj = {
z: 5,
y: 4,
x: 3
}
const { x, y } = myObj
console.log(y) // 4

This is a useful way to take an object and only access the bits you
need via variables. It’s particularly common when unwrapping
external packages in Node.js, but it’s also widely used in front-end
client JavaScript too. Destructuring can even give default values to
undefined ones. If a value is found to be undefined when destructuring,
the default will be used instead:

const myObj = {
z: undefined,
y: 4,
x: 3
}
const { z = 5 } = myObj
console.log(z) // 5
 The variable names you use when destructuring must match the
property names, unless you are destructuring an array. In that case, you
can call your variables anything you like:

const [a, b ] = [1, 2]

console.log(a) // 1

You can unwrap a set of objects together using the three dots
operator, as shown in the following example:

const myObj = {
z: undefined,
y: 4,
x: 3
}
const { x, ...rest } = myObj
// Only shows z and y: { z: undefined, y: 4 }
console.log(rest)

Object Mutability
As we’ve discussed previously, objects are mutable even if contained
within a const variable. We can update any key on an object to
something else by using an equals sign to set it to something
completely different:

let myObject = {
"key": "value",
"someKey": 5,
"anotherKey" : true
}

// Let's update one of the keys on myObject

myObject["key"] = "NEW VALUE"
console.log(myObject["key"]) // shows 'NEW VALUE'

Adding new keys can also be achieved by directly defining them in

code, as shown in the following example:
let myObject = {
"key": "value",
"someKey": 5,
"anotherKey" : true
}

// Let's update one of the keys on myObject

myObject["aNewKey"] = "Some Value"
console.log(myObject["aNewKey"]) // shows 'Some
Value'

Objects may also contain other objects within them, and these can
be accessed via multiple square brackets or using the dot notation if
you prefer:

let myObject = {
"key": {
"key" : 5,
"newKey" : "value"
},
"someKey": 5,
"anotherKey" : true
}

console.log(myObject['key']['newKey']) // shows
'value'
console.log(myObject.key.newKey) // shows 'value'

Non-mutable objects
The only time an object’s mutability changes is if you change it yourself.
All objects have three hidden properties that configure their mutability
along with their value:
Writable – True if the property’s value can be changed, false if it is
read-only.
Enumerable – True if the property will be shown in loops, false if it
won’t be.
 Configurable – True if the property’s value can be deleted or
modified, false if it cannot.
By default, all of these properties are true. Some useful utility
methods exist to change these properties. For example, you can change
an object to read-only by using Object.freeze, after which no
property changes will affect the object. In practice, all this does is sets
the object to { writable: false, configurable: false }.
Another similar property, Object.seal, will instead set an object to {
configurable: false }. This means existing properties can be
changed but not delete, and new ones cannot be added.
In Figure 3-3, you can see how Object.freeze prevents an object
from being modified. No errors are thrown, but the change is ignored.

Figure 3-3 In this image, Object.freeze means myObject can no longer be changed. If we
had used Object.seal instead, then changing via myObject["name"] would have worked,
while trying to add the age property would still have failed

While in the previous examples we’ve applied Object.freeze

and Object.seal to entire objects, individual properties each have
their own enumerable, configurable, and writable properties. You can
configure these settings if you define a new property using the
defineProperty method instead. An example of this is shown in Figure
3-4.
Figure 3-4 In the preceding example, we create a new property called name, which is not
writable. This means that the property cannot be updated. If the property was an object itself,
you could still extend it, as configurable would default to true

Spread Syntax or the “Three Dots”

We’ve covered a variety of methods that can be used to manipulate
arrays and objects. Another useful way to manipulate objects and
arrays in a specific way is through an operator known as the spread
syntax or three dots, which is used widely to change arrays and objects.
The spread syntax can do four things:
1.
Merging arrays
2.
Merging objects
3.
Coercing arrays into objects
4.
Passing arrays as arguments to functions
Using the spread syntax, you can quite easily merge two arrays, as
shown in the following example:

let animals1 = [ "cats", "dogs"]

let animals2 = [ "pigeons" ]

let allAnimals = [ ...animals1, ...animals2 ]

console.log(allAnimals) // [ "cats", "dogs",
"pigeons" ]
 Objects can also be merged in the same way – but if duplicate keys
are found, the second object will overwrite the first:

let user1 = { "name" : "John", age: 24 }

let user2 = { "name" : "Joe" }

let combineUsers = { ...user1, ...user2 }

console.log(combineUsers) // { "name" : "Joe",
age: 24 }

Using the spread syntax on an array inside of an object literal will

turn it into an object, too – where the keys are the indices of the array.
This provides a simple way to convert an array to an object:

let animals = [ "cats", "dogs"]

let objectAnimals = { ...animals }
console.log(objectAnimals) // {0: 'cats', 1:
'dogs'}

Prototype-Based Programming
When we started this chapter, we mentioned that all arrays have the
method .at(). The reason for this is that arrays are created by
initiating a new instance of an array via new Array(). When a new
instance of an array is made, it inherits all properties and methods of
the Array object, which includes .at().
Inheritance in JavaScript happens via something we call
prototypes, a special part of all objects that allows for inheritance.
While other languages use classes and object-oriented programming,
the most common paradigm in JavaScript is the use of prototypes. This
type of programming is called prototype-based programming.
All objects in JavaScript have a prototype, including arrays. You can
see that if you try to console log any object. In Figure 3-5, a console log
of an object I just created shows the [[Prototype]] property.
Figure 3-5 All objects in JavaScript have a prototype property

I already mentioned that all arrays “inherit” standard methods, like

.at():

let myArray = [ "one", 2, "three", "four" ]

let arrayLength = myArray.length

console.log(myArray.at(-1)) // shows 'four'

But how do all arrays “inherit” the .at() method? Well first, it’s
important to remember that we said square brackets act as “syntactic
sugar” for the array constructor:

let myArray = new Array("one", 2, "three", "four")

Here, we are telling JavaScript we want to make a new instance of

the Array object. Since array is just a predefined object in JavaScript, it
already has its own prototype.
When we tell JavaScript to make a new instance of Array, it takes
whatever JavaScript defines an “Array” object as and makes a brand-
new copy of it, including any methods, prototypes and properties.
On this prototype is where we find properties like .length, and
methods like .at(). This isn’t very obvious when using the square
bracket array literal notation, but it’s much clearer when you use new
Array.
Before we go any deeper, let’s test this out. You can use
console.log() on Array.prototype to find all the methods that
exist on the Array object – which are inherited by all arrays. At the
very top, you’ll see .at(), but there are a lot more. All of these
methods are accessible on all Arrays since all Arrays are created
using either new Array or square brackets (which is the same thing
as new Array). An example of the response to console logging this can
be seen in Figure 3-6.

Figure 3-6 Console logging any object in JavaScript can be quite revealing – and doing so on
array shows us all possible methods we can use on every array. Remember this tip if you get
confused when writing JavaScript!

Although so far we’ve been talking about arrays, the same is true for
all objects. Since all objects are new instances of a standard “object”
type, you can find all standard object methods by using
console.log(Object.prototype).

Prototypical Inheritance
We are now getting relatively familiar with objects and arrays and
hopefully gaining an understanding of how arrays and objects both get
their methods and properties. We also know how to access object
properties. For example, we know that given the following code, we
could access the property key by typing myObject.key:

let myObject = {
 "key": "value",
"someKey": {
"someOtherKey" : 5
},
"anotherKey" : true
}

We also saw earlier that we could use the Array.at() method to

get an array item at a specific index:

let myArray = [ "one", 2, "three", "four" ]

console.log(myArray.at(-1)) // shows 'four'

This may seem strange, since this method exists on

Array.prototype, not Array. So given what we know about how
we access objects, shouldn’t the preceding code be
myArray.prototype.at(-1)?

let myArray = [ "one", 2, "three", "four" ]

console.log(myArray.prototype.at(-1))

Well, the answer is of course no, and the preceding code will
actually produce an error. To understand why, we have to learn about
how JavaScript checks for properties on an object, as well as how
JavaScript copies prototypes to new instances. When we write
myArray.at(-1), JavaScript does the following:
1.
Checks the object, myArray, for the property at.
2.
If it doesn’t exist, checks the object myArray’s prototype for the
property.
3.
If it still doesn’t exist, checks the object myArray’s prototype’s
prototype for the property.
4. Keeps doing this until no more prototypes exist, at which point it
will return undefined.
 That’s why myArray.at(-1) works, but it doesn’t exactly
explain why myArray.prototype.at(-1) work. The reason for
this is that myArray.prototype is undefined. If you try console
logging a new array, you’ll find a [[Prototype]] property, but no
prototype property. Since arrays inherit these methods in a special
prototype section and not on the object itself, we can’t access methods
via myArray.prototype. This can be seen in Figure 3-7.

Figure 3-7 While a new array will inherit all prototype properties and methods from its
parent, they do not exist within a prototype property. Instead, they sit in a special area called
[[Prototype]]

[[Prototype]] vs. prototype (and __proto__)

The reason why myArray.prototype is undefined is because
prototype methods and properties which are inherited exist on a
special, hidden property called [[Prototype]].
When we create a new instance of array, it points this new array’s
[[Prototype]] to the Array constructor’s Array.prototype.
While that is clear, there also exists another property called
__proto__ to further confuse matters. You will find this when trying
to console logging Object.prototype. You may have thought, “That
is oddly similar to prototype,” and you wouldn’t be wrong that the two
are related. The __proto__ property is actually just a way to access
the underlying [[Prototype]] of an object. It is a deprecated
feature, meaning you shouldn’t use it. If you do use it, it’s very slow, and
since it’s not a standard part of the JavaScript specification, you might
run into some unexpected problems. A console log for
Object.prototype where you can see the __proto__ property
can be found in Figure 3-8.

Figure 3-8 The prototype of an object has a property called __proto__, as shown earlier

In summary:
The prototype property found on array and object is a set of
all properties inherited onto arrays and objects [[Prototype]]s
when we make new instances of them (with array or object literal
notation, or new Array/Object()).
The [[Prototype]] is a hidden property, which exists on all
objects and can be seen by using console.log(). When you make
a new instance of an Array or Object, the [[Prototype]] of
 that new instance points toward the prototype property of
Array/Object.
The __proto__ property is a deprecated way of accessing an
objects [[Prototype]]. It is strongly discouraged and is not
implemented the same in every browser or JavaScript engine.

Object Shallow and Deep Copies

When data is created inside a variable, the variable points toward that
data, rather than containing it. When we’ve used array methods earlier
in this chapter, we seemed to modify the original array. For example,
using splice on an array changes its value when we try to console log it:

let myArr = [ "banana", "apple", "squid", "cake" ]

myArr.splice(0, 2)
console.log(myArr) // [ "banana", "cake" ]

This seems to make a lot of sense. The variable myVar has changed,
so of course, the original data should be different. However, things
begin to get tricky when you put the splice into another variable. When
we do that, you’ll find that the two variables have different values on
the console log:

let myArr = [ "lightning", "search", "key", "bolt"

]
let newArr = myArr.slice(2, 3);

console.log(myArr); // [ "lightning", "search",

"key", "bolt" ]
console.log(newArr); // [ "key" ]

Shouldn’t an update to myArr using splice cause the original

value to change too so that both myArr and newArr are the same? In
practice, it doesn’t work that way, and the reason why is actually
another JavaScript quirk.
JavaScript makes what is known as a “shallow copy” of data when
you use any array method. That means you have two “references,”
which point to the same underlying data. To visualize this, see Figure 3-
9.

Figure 3-9 In the preceding image, the underlying “DATA” is the “value.” Then myArr and
newArr are both references to that data

While the values stored in myArr and newArr are now different,
they still reference the same underlying data. The data in the reference
is different since it has been changed by the slice method. Since we
stored the slice output on a variable, the underlying data never
changed. This can make it seem like both variables are working
independently, but they are not!
If you try experimenting with this, you might get even more
confused because JavaScript only updates the underlying “value” (i.e.,
the DATA in Figure 3-4) in certain circumstances. For example,
updating the value of only newArr, seems to only affect newArr:

let myArr = [ "lightning", "search", "key", "bolt"

]
let newArr = myArr.slice(2, 3)

newArr[2] = "lightning"
console.log(myArr) // [ "lightning", "search",
"key", "bolt" ]console.log(newArr) // [ "key",
empty, "lightning" ]

So if they are both working from the same data under the hood, why
does this not update the underlying value of our data? That’s because of
something that also seems strange, which is that if you use square
brackets specifically, it only assigns data to the shallow copy! If you
instead use the dot notation, like in situations where an object is in
your array, both the shallow and original will change since changing a
property changes the underlying value:

let myArr = [ { items: [ "search" ]}, "search",

"key", "bolt" ]
let newArr = myArr.slice(0, 3)

// Update arrayOneSlice
newArr[0].items = [ "lightning" ]

console.log(myArr) // [ {items: [ "lightning" ]},

"search", "key", "bolt" ]
console.log(newArr); // [ {items: [ "lightning"
]}, "search", "key" ]

You can see in the previous example that changing

newArr[0].items affects both the shallow copy and the original. It’s
important that you are careful when using methods like slice since
you could end up changing your data in ways you never expected.
The solution to avoid this problem entirely is to create a “deep copy”
of the original. That means an entirely new reference in memory is
made so that both variables can work independently. This is quite
computationally expensive when working with large objects, so only
use it when you need to. The recommended way to do this is to use the
structuredClone function:

let myArray = [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ];
let deepCopy = structuredClone(myArray);
 Deep copies give you certainty. In the previous example, if you apply
any methods to deepCopy, it will only affect deepCopy. The function,
structuredClone, can be used on any object or array to ensure it is
a deep copy rather than a shallow one.

Summary
In this chapter, we’ve covered the fundamentals of objects and arrays.
We’ve shown you how to construct your own objects and arrays, and
then how to mutate them using a variety of methods and operators. In
addition to this, we’ve looked at how prototypical inheritance works
and how objects form the backbone of JavaScript’s main programming
paradigm, prototype-based programming. We’ve also looked at the
variety of ways you can manipulate or access objects and how you can
limit access to objects via hidden properties like configurable. Finally,
we look at some of the quirks related to working with objects, such as
deep and shallow copies.
In future chapters, we’ll build on the themes we have learned here
by introducing new concepts.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_4

4. Loops and Iterables

Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

As we start writing more complicated code, it is both necessary and

desired to not repeat ourselves. This concept in programming is known
as DRY, or Don’t Repeat Yourself. This concept becomes really
important when we're working with large datasets. For example,
imagine you find yourself wanting to create 10 new rows on a table. You
could write the same code ten times in a row, but that would neither be
efficient nor a good use of your time.
To avoid repeating ourselves, we use loops and iteration, and
JavaScript has a number of ways to perform both of these tasks. In this
chapter, we’ll be looking at how we can add these on top of what we’ve
learned so far.

Loops
There are three forms of loops in JavaScript. The first we will look at is
the while clause. The while clause accepts one logical statement, and
while that logical statement is true, the code inside curly brackets will
continue to be executed. In the following example, the result is that
console.log will run ten times:

let x = 1
while(x < 10) {
console.log(x)
++x
}
 Since we don’t want a while loop to run indefinitely, we often adjust
the variable or condition each time the while look runs. In the previous
example, every time while runs, we also use the ++ operator to add 1 to
x. ++x is shorthand, and it’s the equivalent to writing x += 1. The
opposite of ++ is -- which subtracts 1 from a variable. If you didn’t do
this, you’d create an infinite loop, which would ultimately cause your
code to break! A summary of how the while loop above works is shown
in Figure 4-1.

Figure 4-1 A while loop will keep executing code until the logical statement is no longer true.
In this example, if you do not add or multiply something by x, the logical statement will always
remain true, leading to an infinite loop and an error

The result of our preceding loop is shown in Figure 4-2. Since (x <
10) remains true until x has had 10 added to it, we get 10 new lines on
the console log.
Figure 4-2 By using the while loop, we can do an action multiple times, without having to
write out what we want to do many times over. It’s important to modify a participant in your
while condition; otherwise, you may get an infinite loop

An alternative way of performing a while loop using similar

syntax is with do...while. It works the same way, except the
condition is checked after the code is run, meaning the code will always
run at least once. In the following example, the code runs one console
log saying “hello world.” With a normal while loop, it would not run at
all since x is not less than 1:

let x = 1
do {
console.log("hello world")
} while(x < 1)

The final way we can perform a loop is with a for statement. A for
statement combines the variable definition, logical statement, and
modification all in one statement. In the following example, we recreate
the while statement from Figure 4-1, but using for instead:

for(let x = 1; x < 10; ++x) {

console.log(x)
}

The for loop is tidier than a while loop since all of its conditions
are confined to one line. Functionally, though, it does the same thing
that while does. The modification defined in the for loop, that being
++x, will only run after the body of the loop has been run. Table 4-1
summarizes how the for loop works.
Table 4-1 A breakdown of the for statement

Code Section Description

for Initiator Initiates the for loop.
let x = 1 Variable Defines a single variable to be used in the for loop.
x < 10 Condition While this continues to be true, the body of the for loop will
run.
++x Modifier Some modification that occurs. Does not need to include the
variable, but usually does. Could also be something like x +=
2.
console.log(x) Body Runs while the condition remains true.

Break and Continue in Loops

Sometimes if a certain condition is met in a loop, we will want the loop
to stop running again immediately. For example, suppose we are adding
2 to a value and want the loop to break if it hits the value 10. In that
case, we can use an if statement to conditionally break the loop:

for(let x = 0; x < 20; x += 2) {

if(x === 10) break
 console.log(x)
}

Since we break before the console log, this loop only shows 0, 2,
4, 6, 8. Another similar concept is continue, which instead of
breaking the entire loop, only breaks the current iteration.

for(let x = 0; x < 20; x += 2) {

if(x === 10) continue
console.log(x)
}

Using continue only breaks the current iteration, so the preceding

code will now show 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 14, 16, 18 – only
skipping a console log on the loop when the value is 10.

Loop Labels
As our code gets more complicated, we can end up with loops inside of
loops. That can lead to some interesting problems when using breaks,
since break and continue do not know which loop you want to
break or continue on.
To solve this, we can use labels to define which loop is supposed to
break and continue. Here’s an example of a labeled loop, where I
use the labels xLoop and yLoop to refer to the outer and inner loop,
respectively:

xLoop: for(let x = 1; x < 4; x += 2) {

yLoop: for(let y = 1; y < 4; y += 2) {
console.log(`xLoop: ${x * y}`)
}
console.log(`yLoop: ${x}`)
}

If we wanted to break xLoop from within yLoop, we can write

break xLoop. This has the effect of breaking all of xLoop if the value
of x * y is 4, preventing any console.log(x) lines. You can see the
output of this in Figure 4-3:
xLoop: for(let x = 1; x < 4; x += 2) {
yLoop: for(let y = 1; y < 4; y += 2) {
if(x === 1 || x === 3) break xLoop;
console.log(`xLoop: ${x * y}`)
}
console.log(`yLoop: ${x}`)
}

Figure 4-3 In this example, when x is equal to 2, xLoop is broken. That means the whole loop
is only run twice. If you broke yLoop instead when x was 2, then xLoop would continue to run,
while yLoop would have been stopped

Note While I am using the labels xLoop and yLoop in the

previous example, you can label your loops in any way you see fit –
these are just made-up names!

Iteration
When using loops, we are typically using variables and logical
statements to iterate through statements until they stop returning true.
This stops us from repeating ourselves and simplifies our code.
 In the previous chapter, we spoke about how objects and arrays act
as a store of data in JavaScript. Eventually, we’ll want to use the data
contained by them in our code. We can access each individually, but
what if we want to do something with all items in an array or object?
We could write them out on separate lines, as is shown in the following
example, but this quickly becomes unmanageable as the arrays and
objects become bigger:

let myArray = [ "banana", "pineapples",

"strawberries" ]
console.log(`I have 1 ${myArray[0]}`)
console.log(`I have 2 ${myArray[1]}`)
console.log(`I have 3 ${myArray[2]}`)

To solve this problem, some data types in JavaScript are iterable. For
example, arrays and strings are both iterable, but objects are not. Other
types of data like maps and sets are also iterable, but we’ll cover those
in much more depth in future chapters.

Iterables and For Loops

Iterable data can have their values fully extracted with the for...of
or for...in loop, which will assign each element of an iterable to a
variable.
In the following example, “item” refers to each individual item in the
array. Each item will be console logged onto a separate line. You can see
what this looks like in Figure 4-4.

let x = [ "lightning", "apple", "squid", "speaker"

]

for(let item of x) {
console.log(item)
}
Figure 4-4 The for...of loop will allow us to access every item of an array or iterable, as
shown in the preceding image

for...in, on the other hand, will refer to the index, and not the
item itself. In the following example, the output is 0, 1, 2, 3,
whereas in for...of, it was lightning, apple, squid, speaker as the
output:

let x = [ "lightning", "apple", "squid", "speaker"

]

for(let item in x) {
console.log(item)
}

for...of and for...in differ in the way they handle undefined

values. For example, consider the following example where an array
consists of only one array item at location 5. When using for...of, it
will return 4 undefined values, followed by “some value”:

let x = []
x[5] = "some value"

for(let item of x) {
console.log(item)
 // Will show:
// undefined, undefined, undefined, undefined,
undefined
// "some value"
}

With for...in, we only get indices and not array values, so it

therefore omits any undefined values:

for(let item in x) {
console.log(item)
// Will show: 5
}

Array forEach methods

While not all types implement a method for iteration, arrays do. To help
with iteration, arrays also have a special method called forEach. This
method accepts a function with three arguments, as shown in the
following example:

let x = [ "lightning", "apple", "squid", "speaker"

]
x.forEach(function(item, index, array) {
console.log(`${item} is at index ${index}`)
})

The forEach method provides the index, item, and entire array to
you at each iteration in your array. While this method is useful, it is
slower than a for loop – so using a for loop when you can is your best
bet.

String Iteration
Since strings are also iterable, for...of and for...in also work on them. In
the following example, using for...of on the string “hello” produces an
output of all characters in that string. The following code console logs
individually each letter, so h,e,l,l,o. You can see this output in
Figure 4-5.
for(let item of "hello") {
console.log(item)
}

Figure 4-5 Using for...of on a string will also iterate through each character in that string.
If you use for...in, you will get a number on each line for each letter

Iteration Protocol
In the previous chapter, we discussed how different data types, like
arrays, inherit from a prototype. This is called prototypical inheritance.
When we define an array using new Array() or the square
bracket notation, we are making a new instance of Array, which
inherits many methods and properties from Array.prototype. Any
data type, like arrays or strings, which have iterability, will inherit a
property called Symbol.iterator from their prototype chain. This is
known as the iteration protocol. All types which have the iteration
protocol are iterable. The iteration protocol is therefore the reason why
we can use for...in and for...of on arrays and strings. You can
see iteration protocol property in Figure 4-6.
Figure 4-6 You can see the iterator protocol by console logging an iterable’s prototype, like
console.log(Array.prototype)

Another cool feature, which comes with the iteration protocol, is

that they allow the iterable to be stepped through. You can do this by
accessing the iteration protocol key, Symbol.iterator, directly.
Since Symbol.iterator is just another key inherited from
Array.prototype, we can access it just as we would have run
myArray.at(-1):

let myArray = [ "lightning", "apple", "squid",

"speaker" ]
let getIterator = myArray[Symbol.iterator]()
console.log(getIterator)

Symbol.iterator is two words separated by a dot, so we have to

access it via square brackets. We also run it as a function by sticking ()
at the end since it is actually a function. The results of this can be seen
in Figure 4-7.
Figure 4-7 By accessing the Symbol.iterator, we create a new object called an Array
Iterator. This iterator allows us to step through an iterable

Inside Array Iterator’s [[Prototype]], you’ll find a method

called next(). This function allows you to iterate by one item at a time
and remembers where in the sequence you last left it. For example,
running getIterator.next() will give you an object containing
whether the iteration is done (which is only true if you have iterated
through all values) and the value of the next item in the array:

let myArray = [ "lightning", "apple", "squid",

"speaker" ]
let getIterator = myArray[Symbol.iterator]()
console.log(getIterator.next()) // {value:
'lightning', done: false}

If you keep running next(), you’ll keep getting the next item, as is
shown in the following example:

let myArray = [ "lightning", "apple", "squid",

"speaker" ]
let getIterator = myArray[Symbol.iterator]()
console.log(getIterator.next()) // {value:
'lightning', done: false}
console.log(getIterator.next()) // {value:
'apple', done: false}
console.log(getIterator.next()) // {value:
'squid', done: false}
console.log(getIterator.next()) // {value:
'speaker', done: true}
console.log(getIterator.next()) // {value:
undefined, done: true}
Objects Are Not Iterable by Default
If you try to console log Object.prototype, you’ll find no
Symbol.iterator property, which implies objects are not
iterable. The main reason why objects are not iterable by default is
because they contain both keys and values. Deciding which to iterate
upon or how to format that iteration is something that JavaScript leaves
to you.
Fortunately, there is an easy way to iterate through an object, and
that is to convert it to an iterable data type, like an array. There are
three methods to do this:
Object.keys(), which extracts all keys as an array
Object.values(), which extracts all values as an array
Object.entries(), which extracts all keys and arrays as an array
of key–value pairs
We haven’t seen these object methods before, but they are all
available on the global Object object. Consider the following example,
where we have an array called myObject. We can use both
Object.keys() and Object.values() directly on this object to
extract an array from each:

let myObject = {
firstName: "John",
lastName: "Doe",
age: 140
}

let myObjectKeys = Object.keys(myObject)

console.log(myObjectKeys) //[ "firstName",
"lastName", "age" ]

let myObjectValues = Object.values(myObject)

console.log(myObjectValues) //[ "John", "Doe", 140
]

Once we have extracted an array, we can run this through a for loop
since arrays are iterable. This is shown in the following example and
also in Figure 4-8.

let myObject = {
firstName: "John",
lastName: "Doe",
age: 140
}

let myObjectKeys = Object.keys(myObject)

for(let item of myObjectKeys) {
console.log(item)
}

Figure 4-8 Methods like Object.keys() turn objects into iterable arrays, which we can
then iterate through

Object.entries() is slightly different from

Object.keys/values(), in that it creates an array of key–value
pairs. You can see the output of Object.entries when applied to
myObjectKeys in Figure 4-9.
Figure 4-9 Object.entries creates an array of key–value pairs. Each key–value pair itself
is an array too

Using destructuring, which we covered in a previous chapter, we

can access both key and value from an object using Object.entries. In
the following example, we do just that by using a for...of loop. The
output of this for loop can also be seen in Figure 4-10.

let myObject = {
firstName: "John",
lastName: "Doe",
age: 140
}

let myObjectEntries = Object.entries(myObject)

for(const [key, value] of myObjectEntries) {
console.log(`The key ${key} has a value
${value}`)
}
Figure 4-10 Key–value pairs generated by Object.entries can easily be accessed by using
variable destructuring inside of a for loop. Here we retrieve all of the keys and values in
myObject

Summary
In this chapter, we’ve covered all of the different kinds of loops in
JavaScript. We’ve also discussed how breaks, continues, and labels work
in the context of for loops. Looping is not just confined to logical
statements, so we’ve also gone into a lot of detail about how to iterate
over arrays, strings, and any other data type implementing the iteration
protocol.
Objects, the most important data type in JavaScript, are not directly
iterable. However, we can convert them into iterable arrays through
methods like Object.entries().
Throughout the book, we’ll need to access arrays, objects, and other
iterables. Understanding these concepts makes writing code more
efficient, and we’ll use the code we’ve learned here in future chapters.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_5

5. References, Values, and Memory

Management
Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

We have already alluded to the fact that variables point to certain

references in memory, and we’ve also briefly covered how deep and
shallow copies of objects exist. In this chapter, we’ll be going into more
depth about how memory allocation actually work. All of the concepts
we will discuss in this chapter fall under a broad topic known as
“memory management.” Memory management, in simple terms, is
how JavaScript allocates data we create to memory.

Introduction
To understand memory management, we need to understand “heaps”
and “stacks.” These are both memory concepts and are both stored in
the “random access memory” or RAM.
Computers have a fixed amount of RAM. Since JavaScript stores data
in RAM, the amount of data your JavaScript uses impacts the amount of
RAM used on your computer or server. As such, it can be possible to run
out of RAM if you build a sufficiently complicated JavaScript
application.
So if the heap and stack are both stored in RAM, and they’re both
used for storing JavaScript data, what’s the difference?
The stack is a scratch space for the current JavaScript thread.
JavaScript is typically single-threaded, so there is usually one stack
 per application. The stack is also limited in size, which is why
numbers in JavaScript can only be so big.
The heap is a dynamic memory store. Accessing data from the heap
is more complicated, but the heap is not limited in size. As such, the
heap will grow if needed.
The heap is used by JavaScript to store objects and functions. For
simple variables composed of numbers, strings, and other primitive
types, the stack is typically used instead. The stack also stores
information on functions which will be called.

Note JavaScript has built-in functionality known as “garbage

collection” to avoid your application running out of RAM. This
algorithm uses a number of different checks, like if a variable or
object is no longer referenced in your code, to clear it from the
memory. This goes some way to prevent you from running out of
memory.

Stacks
The stack is a scratch space for the current JavaScript thread. Every
time you point to a primitive type (primitive, here, meaning anything
which is not an object) in JavaScript, it is added to the top of the stack.
In the following code, we define variables. Non-object type data is
immediately added to the top of the stack. A representation of this can
be seen in Figure 5-1.

const SOME_CONSTANT = 5
let myNumber = 10
let myVariable = "Some Text"
Figure 5-1 Each new line of code is added to the stack. This includes functions

Sometimes, when running complex code or loops, you can see the
stack in action. If you exceed the stack limit, you’ll get the error,
RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded.
Different browsers and implementations of JavaScript like Node.js have
different stack sizes, but you have to be running a lot of code
simultaneously to ever get this error. You may also run into this error if
you accidentally run an infinite loop.
If you try to reassign a variable of primitive type, it gets added to the
stack as well, even if the variables are supposedly pointing to the same
value. Consider the following code, for example:

let myNumber = 5
let newNumber = myNumber

Although it seems like both of these variables should point to the

same underlying value (that value being 5), JavaScript instead adds
both references to the stack as individual entries with different values
completely.
What that means in practice is that for any primitive or non-object
value in JavaScript, a deep copy is always made. Variables will not point
to the same underlying value in memory but rather appear as new
copies of data, each acting independently of each other, as shown in
Figure 5-2.
Figure 5-2 Each new variable of non-object type will appear as a new reference and value on
the stack

The Event Loop

Note In this section we will briefly go into how APIs work to show
you how the event loop works. While we won’t cover what APIs are
and how to use them in detail here, we will go into this in future
chapters. Jump ahead if you are interested in learning more about
APIs.

JavaScript code only has one stack in browsers, so it is commonly

described as being single-threaded. However, JavaScript can act like it
has multiple threads at once on the front end via something known as
Web APIs.
We use something called an API or application programming
interfaces to let us outsource some of our computation somewhere else
and wait for the response. Usually, APIs exist on a server. For example,
you could hit an API for retrieving a list of articles on your website. We
could then use this data in our code.
“API” sounds complicated, but it’s just a URL that we can hit, which
will eventually send us a response from inside our code. For example,
we may hit the URL https://some-
website.org/api/articles to retrieve website articles. We
would then receive a response from the API with all of the articles. In a
future chapter, we’ll deep dive into how APIs work.
When we run an API, the server will do some computation on our
behalf, but our JavaScript code will continue to run. Since the API and
JavaScript code are both processing at the same time, this gives us a
way to create multiple threads.
Browsers have some built-in APIs that can be called straight from
your code. These are known as Web APIs, and they usually offer an
interface between the code in your browser and the operating system
itself. An example of a Web API is the global function, setTimeout,
which lets us execute code after a certain number of seconds:

let myNumber = 5
setTimeout(function() {
console.log("Hello World")
}, 1000)

setTimeout accepts two arguments – a callback function and a

time in milliseconds, which are processed by the Web API. Most Web
APIs accept a callback function, which is run on the Web API stack. This
means that setTimeout is removed immediately from the main stack
and only comes back to the main stack again once it has been
processed.
This means that Web APIs run in parallel to the main JavaScript
stack. When the callback is finished, the result is added back to the
main stack, and this is mediated by something called the event loop,
which decides when to add tasks to the main thread. You can see an
illustration of how this works in Figure 5-3:
Figure 5-3 Web APIs can be used to create concurrency in JavaScript. Web APIs use callback
functions, which are processed by a Web API stack, separate from other JavaScript. When
processing is complete, the callback is added to the callback queue, which acts just like the
stack, in that new callbacks are added to the top, and processing starts from the bottom. The
event loop then mediates the callback being added to the main stack, where it can be processed
like any other stack item

Note Web API functions that take a long time to run, like
setTimeout, are added to the event loop as “macrotasks.” Some
faster Web API functions are added as “microtasks.” Microtasks take
priority when being added back to the main stack. Whether a Web
API generates a macro or microtask is dependent on how long it
takes to run!

The Heap
When we looked at objects, we covered how we can copy objects by
making “deep” and “shallow” copies of them. The reason we have deep
and shallow copies in JavaScript is because of how objects are stored in
the heap.
While non-object types are stored in the stack only, objects are
thrown into the heap, which is a more dynamic form of memory with
no limit. This means that large objects will never exceed the stack limit.
Consider the following object. First, we define a new object, and
then we set another variable to point to it:

let userOne = { name: "John Schmidt" }

let userTwo = userOne

While in previous examples using the stack, this type of code would
lead to two new entries, this code does something slightly different.
Here, the object is stored in the heap, and the stack only refers to the
heap reference. The preceding code would produce something a little
bit like what is shown in Figure 5-4.

Figure 5-4 Objects are stored in the heap, and the stack refers to the reference of that object.
The reference codes used here are illustrative

Since the variables now refer to the same object, updating one can
have an effect on the other, which can cause confusion when updating
arrays that you believe are deep copies, but are actually shallow copies.

Note on object types Since functions and arrays are also of type
“object,” they too are stored in the heap!

Object and Reference Equality

The final complexity that JavaScript introduces by using this method of
storing objects and non-objects is to do with equality. JavaScript
actually has a lot of difficulty comparing the values of two different
objects, and it’s basically down to stacks and heaps. To understand why,
consider the following code:

let myNumber = 5
let newNumber = 5
let newObject = { name: "John Schmidt" }
let cloneObject = { name: "John Schmidt" }
let additionalObject = newObject

We’ve just defined a bunch of variables, and in the stack, it would

look a little like what’s shown in Figure 5-5.

Figure 5-5 While non-objects are made on the stack as normal, a new object creates a new
reference. Even though both cloneObject and newObject have the same underlying
“value,” their references still differ

So, newNumber and myNumber both have the same value and will
give us a “true” value if we try to test their equality with the triple
equals sign:

let myNumber = 5
let newNumber = 5

console.log(myNumber === newNumber) // TRUE

Similarly, additionalObject and newObject both refer to the

same reference and will also test true for equality:

let newObject = { name: "John Schmidt" }

let additionalObject = newObject

console.log(newObject === additionalObject) //

TRUE

The complexity appears when we compare cloneObject and

newObject. Even though cloneObject has the same underlying
value as newObject, JavaScript will compare the equality of the two
references, not the underlying value itself:

let newObject = { name: "John Schmidt" }

let cloneObject = { name: "John Schmidt" }

console.log(newObject === cloneObject) // False

This is a common point of confusion for most people learning

JavaScript because it’s counterintuitive. When you understand heaps
and stacks, it starts to make sense. newObject and cloneObject are
NOT equal since they both have different references in the stack.

Comparing Object Equality

So how do you compare object equality for objects with different
references in JavaScript? Well, it’s not easy, and there is no built-in way
to do it. Instead, you have the following options:
1.
You can write your own function to compare each key and value in
an object individually or find a good example online.
2.
In Node.js, which we will not be covering in a lot of detail in this
book, you can use the built-in
assert.deepStrictEqual(obj1, obj2) function to
compare two objects.
3.
Finally, although it’s not recommended, you can also convert both
objects to strings using JSON.stringify() to compare their
values. JSON.stringify will turn any object into a string, which
will be stored on the stack. Then, if both strings are the same, you
can assume equality. This is not advised since this JSON method
also removes some types of data from objects, like functions.
Therefore, you cannot be sure that it will always test for equality,
making it quite unreliable.
If you’re using Node.js, your best option is option 2. Otherwise, it is
more advised that you write your own function (or find one online), as
described in option 1.

Summary
In this chapter, we’ve covered a lot of basic concepts on how memory
management works. We’ve looked at how stacks and heaps work in
JavaScript. We’ve also touched on Web APIs and how they simulate
multithreaded behavior in JavaScript. We’ve briefly covered APIs and
Web APIs, although we will look at these in much more detail in future
chapters. Topics like how JavaScript handles object equality can seem
confusing and counterintuitive until we understand how objects are
stored and compared differently than other data types. As such, a good
understanding of memory management can help explain some of the
quirks we experience when developing applications in JavaScript.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_6

6. Functions and Classes

Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

Functions and classes are what we use to wrap certain pieces of

functionality into reusable blocks. By using a function or class, we can
repeat specific tasks many times without having to rewrite the
code. When JavaScript was originally released, it only had functions and
used prototypes for inheritance. We covered this type of inheritance
when we looked at objects.
Classes came later to JavaScript, but they are largely just syntactic
sugar for prototype-based inheritance. As such, many developers in
JavaScript choose not to use classes and instead depend on prototypical
inheritance.
As with all things in software development, it doesn’t really matter
if you decide to use classes, or depend on prototypical inheritance with
functions. The important thing is that you are consistent throughout
your projects.

Introduction to Functions
A typical function consists of three parts:
1.
An input, known as arguments (although sometimes, no input is
given)
2.
Some code to either manipulate those inputs or perform some kind
of action.
3. An output, usually related to the input. It doesn’t have to be, but it’s
 better if it is.
Inputs in functions are called arguments, and we return outputs
using the return keyword. Then, when we run a function, it returns
that value. If your function doesn’t return anything, that is also
acceptable, but better to avoid if possible.
When you don’t return something from a function in JavaScript, the
function will always return “undefined” by default – so the return
keyword is technically optional in a function.
So what does a function look like? In the following example, we
create a simple function that returns “Hello World” upon being run:

function myFunction() {
return "Hello World"
}
console.log(myFunction())

We run functions by writing their names, followed by parentheses

(). In the previous example, myFunction has no inputs or arguments,
and all it does is return the text “Hello World.” We ran this function
inside console log, meaning the console would produce the text “Hello
World” as shown in Figure 6-1.

Figure 6-1 A function can be run in any context, even within another function. Since the return
value of the preceding function is “Hello World,” running myFunction will return that string,
which can then be console logged

Arguments are added inside the function declaration, within the

round () brackets. Arguments then act as variables within the scope of
the function. For example, the following function creates a sentence
composed of two parts. Although not particularly useful in practice, it
gives you a sense of how arguments work:

function words(word1, word2) {

return word1 + " " + word2
}
console.log(words("Hello", "John")) // Hello John
console.log(words("Hello", "Jake")) // Hello Jake
console.log(words("Good bye", "Alice")) // Good
bye Alice

As we discussed early in the book, JavaScript is dynamically typed.

When we defined our preceding function, we called our arguments
word1 and word2. Even though they are called this, we can provide
multiple words, and JavaScript won’t mind. This has its advantages, in
that it’s simpler, but also its disadvantages. For example, what if you
were expecting only words in your function, but numbers or objects
were given instead? This makes naming and control statements like
if...else within functions more important in JavaScript than in
other languages.
When we call a new function, it’s added to the top of the stack for
our program, just like a variable, as demonstrated in Figure 6-2.

Note Functions are of type Object – so when we declare them, their

data is stored in the heap. However, calling them will add them to the
call stack like variables.
Figure 6-2 Functions are added to the top of the stack as they are declared – just like variables

Running Arguments with the “Three Dots”

Arguments can also be called in a function via array, using the three
dots syntax, which we covered previously when we look at how to
merge arrays and objects. Let’s look at how that works using our
previous example:

function words(word1, word2) {

return word1 + " " + word2
}
let validWords = [ "Hello", "John" ]
console.log(words(...validWords)) // Hello John

This is really useful in the real world, where we often have data
stored in arrays and objects, which we then want to pass to functions.

Alternative Ways to Call Functions

JavaScript has a tendency to have many ways to do the same thing, and
functions are no exception. There are three ways to declare and call
functions.

Unnamed Function Expressions

Unnamed function expressions are confusingly named since they do
have a name – but the name is expressed via variable. You can define
them via let or const variables – and then the variable name
becomes the function name. Here is our previous example, using
variables instead:

let words = function(word1, word2) {

return word1 + " " + word2
}

console.log(words("Hello", "World"))

We can also put functions like this inside objects, allowing us to

group functions together or add methods to a prototype:

let wordFunctions = {
words: function(word1, word2) {
return word1 + " " + word2
}
}

In the preceding example, calling wordFunctions.words()

would let us run this function.

Anonymous Functions
Anonymous functions (also sometimes referred to as Immediately
Invoked Function Expression or IIFEs) are functions that actually are
unnamed and are called immediately. To make it run immediately, we
wrap it in round brackets and call it with double round brackets as
before:

(function(word1, word2) {
return word1 + " " + word2
})("Hello", "World")

Arguments are put in the second set of brackets so that they can be
passed to the function. The use of anonymous functions is falling, but
they are sometimes still used to create a separate scope to work within.
Functions with Arrow Notation
The arrow notation is another way of defining functions. This notation
comes with some different functionality compared to the other function
definitions we’ve covered. The arrow notation is called as such because
it uses => to indicate where the body of the function begins.
Here is how our previous function looks with the arrow notation.
When you try to call it, it works the same as our other function
expressions:

let words = (word1, word2) => {

return word1 + " " + word2
}
console.log(words("Hello", "John")) // Hello John

Arrow notation functions are different in that they don’t store a

unique context. To understand what that means, we first have to
understand what the this keyword means in JavaScript and therefore
a little bit about strict mode.

Functions and the “this” Keyword

The keyword this can be a little tricky to understand in JavaScript
since it behaves differently than in other languages. The main purpose
of the keyword this is to contain information on your current context.
At the top level of your code, outside of any functions, the context is
“global,”. When we use the “this” keyword in the global context on
browsers, it refers to an object called window. The window object
contains lots of useful information about your current context. For
example, window.innerWidth tells you the width of the user’s
browser window. It also contains information on mouse position, and
it’s where all Web APIs exist.
As such, the two console logs in the following example show the
same thing:

:console.log(this) // Console logs window object

console.log(window) // Console logs window object
 Given what we’ve said so far, when we call the this keyword inside
a function, you might expect the this keyword to refer to the context
of the function, but you’ll find that it still shows the global this object:

console.log(this) // Window { }
let words = function (word1, word2) {
console.log(this) // Window { }
return word1 + " " + word2
}

This doesn’t make much sense when you think about it conceptually.
Shouldn’t a function be its own context and therefore have its own
this? The reason why this is the case is not very complicated:
JavaScript was originally created for novices to make scripting fast. So
to make things easier, it auto-populates a function’s this value with
the global this or window.
That means window is available by default in all of your functions
via this keyword. That’s kind of useful, but it gets messy if you want a
function to have a coherent, separated context.

Sloppy Mode
When we write JavaScript code, by default, all code is usually written in
something called “sloppy mode,” which accommodates for novices by
ignoring some errors and causing functions to inherit the global
context. To exit sloppy mode, we have to switch to something called
“strict” mode.
Strict mode brings many advantages to your code, the main one
being separating out function contexts from the global context. Both
files and functions can be made strict by adding the “use strict” text at
the top. By putting our code into strict mode, we can give each function
its own context, and thus the keyword this will return undefined
inside a function. In the following example, strict mode is enabled. To
enable strict mode, you just have to add “use strict” to the top of your
file:

"use strict"
console.log(this) // Window { }
let words = function (word1, word2) {
console.log(this) // undefined
return word1 + " " + word2
}

Arrow Notation Functionality with this

Now that we’ve looked at how different contexts work with functions,
let’s go back to arrow notation functions. Arrow functions are a little
different from other functions in that they do not have their own
context. That means that even in strict mode, they inherit it from their
parents. This functionality only really makes sense in strict mode:

"use strict"
console.log(this) // Window { }
let words = () => {
console.log(this)
}
words() // console logs Window { }

If your arrow function is inside another function, which is not using

arrow notation, it inherits the context from that parent function. This
can be seen in the following example:

"use strict"
let contextualFunction = function() {
let words = () => {
console.log(this) // console logs
undefined
}
words()
}
contextualFunction() // console logs undefined

In general, strict mode is a more reliable way to write code. As well

as that, it’s pretty bad practice to expose global variables unknowingly
to downstream scripts, which should perhaps not have access to them.
 So far, while working in strict mode, this has been undefined
inside functions. To make the this keyword more valuable, we
will want to give it some kind of value. To do that, we need to
understand the different ways we can call functions with context.

Calling Functions with Context

There are three methods inherited by all functions via prototypical
inheritance, which allow us to call functions with a custom this
context. These are listed below:
1.
call(), which calls a function and gives it some context. Using
call() can both define a context for a function and also pass
variables to it (separated by commas).
2.
apply(), which is the same as call() but uses an array to define
the arguments of a function.
3.
bind(), which permanently binds some context to a function – so
you never have to redefine its context again.
call(). Suppose we want to define a constant value which is
available within a specific function. We can achieve this functionality by
adding our constant to the function’s context

"use strict"
let words = function (word, punctuation) {
return this.keyword + " " + word + punctuation
}
let wordContext = { keyword: "Hello" }
let helloWorld = words.call(wordContext, "World",
"!")
console.log(helloWorld) // "Hello World!"

In this example, we pass the object wordContext into call() so

that it becomes the context of the function and therefore its this
value. Arguments are defined after the context and separated by
commas – so “World” and “!” both become word and punctuation,
respectively. You can see the output of this in Figure 6-3.

Figure 6-3 Functions are added to the top of the stack as they are declared – just like variables

Similar to the example above, apply() works in essentially the

same way, with the only difference being that arguments are defined in
an array. With apply, the code would look like this instead:

let helloWorld = words.apply(wordContext, [

"World", "!" ])

If we were calling words() all the time, we’ll find that we will have
to keep mentioning our context over and over again – which is not
ideal. That’s because we need to reference it every time we use call or
apply. In the following example, we want to call words() twice and use
the same context for each call. This means we have to write the same
code twice:

"use strict"
let words = function (word, punctuation) {
return this.keyword + " " + word + punctuation
}
let wordContext = {
keyword: "Hello"
}
let helloWorld = words.call(wordContext, "World",
"!")
let goodbye = words.call(wordContext, "Goodbye",
"!")
console.log(helloWorld) // "Hello World!"
console.log(goodbye) // "Hello Goodbye!"

Although not a major problem, it does start to become an issue on

large code bases. Instead, it’s more efficient to use bind(). Using
bind(), we only ever mention our context once, and then it
permanently becomes entangled with our function. This can be seen in
the following example:

"use strict"
let words = function (word, punctuation) {
return this.keyword + " " + word + punctuation
}
let wordContext = {
keyword: "Hello"
}
let boundWord = words.bind(wordContext)

let helloWorld = boundWord("World", "!")

let goodbye = boundWord("Goodbye", "!")
console.log(helloWorld) // "Hello World!"
console.log(goodbye) // "Hello Goodbye!"

Calling functions with context lends itself well to functional

inheritance. Functions can inherit certain global variables or methods
via context.

Constructor Functions in JavaScript

In the same way that we were able to make new instances of arrays and
objects, we can use the new keyword to generate new instances of
functions in JavaScript.
When you use the new keyword, it also has the added benefit of
creating a new context – so your function will not inherit this from
the global context. Due to this reason, you cannot use the new keyword
with arrow notation functions then since they lack context.
Let’s look at an example to familiarize ourselves with this concept.
Functions called with new act much like functions which do not have
new:

let myFunction = function(name, age, country) {

console.log(this) // myFunction { }
}

let newFunction = new myFunction("John", 24,

"Britain")

Note With the new keyword, you can omit the double brackets
when calling your function if you have no arguments. So new
myFunction() is the same as new myFunction.

Since they generate their own context, console logging of this will
return myFunction { }, which contains details about the function
(under constructor), and the global prototype for object types since
functions are of type object. You can see what this looks like in Figure 6-
4.

Figure 6-4 When using the new keyword, this refers to the function’s prototype, which
contains details on the function, and its inherited object prototype. This is not super important
for writing code from day to day but is useful to know nonetheless

Creating encapsulated functions which have their own context turns

out to be quite useful. For example, we can assign details passed in the
argument of our function to our this context like so:

let myFunction = function(name, age, country) {

this.assignedName = name
this.assignedAge = age
this.assignedCountry = country
console.log(this) // Contains assignedAge,
assignedCountry, and assignedName
}

let newFunction = new myFunction("John", 24,

"Britain")
console.log(newFunction) // Contains assignedAge,
assignedCountry, and assignedName

Every time we call a new instance of our function, we create a new

context, and the function is self-contained. While this seems similar to
creating an object containing new values, it gives us the added value of
being able to manipulate or change assigned values.
For example, suppose we are building an application that allows
user registration. We could create a constructor function which, when
called, is different for each user, as shown in the following example:

let User = function(firstName, lastName, age) {

this.fullName = firstName + " " + lastName
this.age = age
}

let userOne = new User("John", "Big", 24)

console.log(userOne) // { fullName: "John Big",
age: 24 }

let userTwo = new User("John", "Small", 24)

console.log(userTwo) // { fullName: "John Small",
age: 24 }

It is also possible to check if functions were constructed with new if

you need to. Although not a best practice, it can give you context in
some edge-case scenarios. You can do this by checking new.target,
which when undefined, means that the function was called without
new:

let User = function(firstName, lastName, age) {

if(new.target) {
this.fullName = firstName + " " + lastName
this.age = age
}
else {
return "Hello World"
}
}

let userOne = new User("John", "Big", 24)

console.log(userOne) // { fullName: "John Big",
age: 24 }

let userTwo = User("John", "Small", 24)

console.log(userTwo) // "Hello World"

Additional Function Methods

This way of writing code is object-oriented. The user is the object, in
this case, and we can then define that a “user” can do certain things. We
can attach the methods that a user can do to the User function itself.
The User function, known as a constructor, then lets us construct a
user, who can do multiple things. To illustrate this, let’s try adding a
method to our function. For example, let’s allow a user can give their
name:

let User = function(firstName, lastName, age) {

this.fullName = firstName + " " + lastName
 this.age = age
}

User.prototype.giveName = function() {
return `My name is ${this.fullName}!`
}

Since fullName is already defined by the constructor function, it

will be available in User.prototype.name. Then, when we want the
user to give their name, we only have to call the function
userOne.giveName():

let userOne = new User("John", "Big", 24)

// Console logs "My name is John Big!"

console.log(userOne.giveName())

Getters and Setters

As well as all of the regular function expressions we’ve looked at so
far, special functions can be defined inside objects known as getters and
setters. As the name suggests, they let us get or set values on an object.
Getters and setters are just syntactic sugar – they make your code a
little easier to understand from the outside, but their functionality can
be achieved with standalone functions too.
Consider this example, where we store animal names on our object.
Here, we have one get function – to get the “value” property of our
object and a set method to add new animals to that value property.
Inside an object, this refers to the object itself. This is also true for
normal functions set inside of objects:

let Animals = {
value: [ 'dog', 'cat' ],
get listAnimals() {
return this.value
},
set newAnimal(name) {
 this.value.push(name)
console.log("New animal added: " + name)
}
}

Animals.newAnimal = "sheep"
console.log(Animals.listAnimals)

What is interesting about getters and setters is that you don’t call
them using the double brackets like Animals.newAnimal().
Instead, they are called whenever you check the property name. So
Animals.newAnimal = "sheep" is used rather than
Animals.newAnimal("sheep"). Similarly,
Animals.listAnimals will list all animals, without needing to run
the function.
This gives them the appearance of being normal properties, with
the added benefit of being able to run functional code.

Generator Functions
The final type of function we’ll look at is known as the generator
function. Earlier, when we looked at array iteration, we mentioned how
we could create an iterator with access to the next() method by
accessing the iterator protocol:

let myArray = [ "lightning", "apple", "squid",

"speaker" ]
let getIterator = myArray[Symbol.iterator]()
console.log(getIterator.next()) // {value:
'lightning', done: false}

Generator functions work in a similar way and are denoted by

function*. A simple generator function looks like this:

function* someGenerator(x) {
yield x;
}
const runG = generator(1)
console.log(runG.next()) // {value: 1, done:
false}
console.log(runG.next()) // {value: undefined,
done: true}

Every time you use yield in a generator function, it represents a

stopping point for next(). You can think of yield as the generator
function version of return. Since we only used yield once in this
function, next() will only work once. After that, it will be marked as
done as is shown in the previous example. As such, generator functions
remember where you left off and continue on from that point.
In the following example, we run an infinite loop, which also
increases the value of a variable called index each time. The function
remembers the value of index, each time we run next, allowing us to
access the next calculation in the sequence each time:

function* someGenerator(x) {
let index = 0
while(true) {
yield x * 10 * index
++index
}
}

const runG = someGenerator(5)

console.log(runG.next()) // {value: 0, done:
false}
console.log(runG.next()) // {value: 50, done:
false}
console.log(runG.next()) // {value: 100, done:
false}
console.log(runG.next()) // {value: 150, done:
false}

If we try to use return in a generator function, the “done” state

will be set to true and the generator will stop working:
function* someGenerator(x) {
let index = 0
while(true) {
yield x * 10 * index
return 5
}
}

const runG = someGenerator(5)

console.log(runG.next()) // {value: 0, done:
false}
console.log(runG.next()) // {value: 5, done: true}
console.log(runG.next()) // {value: undefined,
done: true}

If you need to use another generator function within a generator

function, you can defer yield to that new generator function instead.
In those scenarios, we use yield*. For example, yield* myFunc()
would take the yield value from myFunc() and use it in the current
function.

Classes
JavaScript is a prototypical language, and as we’ve seen already,
inheritance occurs via prototypes. Many other languages have classes,
which can make JavaScript seem like quite a departure in syntax.
To alleviate this problem of unfamiliarity, JavaScript implemented
classes. For the most part though, classes in JavaScript are basically just
syntactic sugar for writing constructor functions, with a few additional
capabilities specific to classes.
Classes do not have to be used to write JavaScript since they provide
little in the way of new functionality, but they are becoming more
common as JavaScript inherits more developers who are used to
writing class based software. Classes always have to be called with the
new keyword, and they always run in strict mode, so they create their
own context by default without the need of strict mode.
Classes and Constructor Functions
Classes can have a constructor function, which is the function that
runs any time they are called, but they don’t need to have one. In
classes, constructor functions are defined using the constructor
keyword, and you can only have one constructor function per class.
They behave like normal functions, and any arguments passed to the
class will go into the constructor function, as is shown in the following
example:

let myClass = class {

constructor(name) {
console.log(name)
}
}
new myClass("hello") // Console logs "hello"

For context, this example is the equivalent of writing the following

functional code:

let myFunction = function(name) {

console.log(name)
}
new myFunction("hello") // Console logs "hello"

Classes can be written in two ways, either where we use a let or

const variable to define the class:

let myClass = class { // ...

Or using the class keyword followed by the class name:

class myClass { // ...

Class Methods
Just like when we declare functions using the new keyword, we can also
define methods on classes. These are defined directly in the class body
and work in the same way. As an example of how this works in practice,
let’s create a class called HotSauce, with a couple properties and a
method to retrieve how hot the sauce is.
There are a few things worth noting here:
1.
At the top level of the class body, variables can be defined within a
class without variable keywords. That’s because they act like the
properties of an object. Variables at the top level of the class join
the class’s context. In this example, I assign units and
maxHotness to the context of the class, so can be accessed via
this in methods.
2.
Methods are written like method() instead of function
method().
3.
Classes don’t have arguments, but you can call a class with
arguments. The arguments on the constructor are where the
arguments used on the class are passed to.
4.
Classes ultimately create objects, just like functions. If you try
console logging new HotSauce('Chilli Wave', 4600),
you’ll get an object back, as shown in Figure 6-5.
5. Finally, arguments passed to a class are not available by default to
the entire class. As such, it’s pretty common to see code that takes
arguments from the constructor function and assigns them to
this. That’s what we do in the following for the name and hotness
of the hot sauce defined:

let HotSauce = class {

// Fields here are added to this, so they
are available
// via this.units and this.maxHotness in
methods
units = 'scoville'
maxHotness = 20000000

constructor(name, hotness) {
// We can assign arguments from new
i t f
 instances of
// our class to this as well
this.hotness = hotness
this.name = name
}
getName() {
if(this.hotness < this.maxHotness) {
return `${this.name} is
${this.hotness} ${this.units}`
}
else {
return `${this.name} is too hot!`
}
}
}

let newSauce = new HotSauce('Chilli Wave',

4600)
// Console logs 'Chilli Wave is 4600 scoville
scovilles'
console.log(newSauce.getName())

Figure 6-5 Classes create objects. If we log the instance we created of our HotSauce class,
newSauce, we’ll get an object containing all the properties we defined, along with a prototype
containing our methods
Class Method Types
By default, all class methods are public. That means they can be
changed outside of the class. They will also show up in the console log
and can even be deleted. For example, we could totally rewrite our
getName method if we wanted to, outside of the class:

let newSauce = new HotSauce('Chilli Wave', 4600)

newSauce.getName = function() {
return "No Hot Sauce for you!"
}
// No Hot Sauce for you!
console.log(newSauce.getName())

Sometimes, you don’t want a class editable like this. As such,

JavaScript provides two other types of fields we can use with classes:
– Static fields, which cannot be accessed on a new instance of a class
itself but only on the original class (which we’ll look at in more detail
soon)
– Private fields, which can only be accessed from within the class
itself

Static Method Fields

Static methods and fields are usually used for utility functions. Consider
this class, where a simple static method will return some details on the
class:

let Utility = class {

static className = "Utility Functions"
static author = "Some Author"

static classDetails() {
return `${this.className} by
${this.author}`
}
}
 If we try to initialize this class and call classDetails(), we’ll
receive a type error since classDetails cannot be called on a new
instance of Utility.

let callUtility = new Utility

console.log(callUtility.classDetai
ls())

Instead, we need to call the static method directly on the Utility

class as is shown in the following example:

// Utility Functions by Some Author

console.log(Utility.classDetails())

Since we don’t initiate a new instance of our class, static methods

will also not have access to non-static properties on the class. For
example, if we had not called className and author static in the
preceding example, then they would have been undefined when we
tried to reference them in classDetails().
Just like their public counterparts, static methods can be deleted or
changed on the class itself. For example, we could redefine
classDetails() to something completely different:

Utility.classDetails = function() {
return "Some return text"
}

Static methods can also be getters and setters. If we changed our

classDetails() function from static classDetails() to static
get classDetails(), we could then call it as
Utility.classDetails. The same applies to setters.
Finally, we can create static initializers to run upon class
initialization. This lets us run some functionality when calling static
properties or methods even though static methods cannot accept
arguments. In the following example, we update the author static
variable to “Hello World” upon class initialization:
let Utility = class {
static className = "Utility Functions"
static author = "Some Author"
static {
this.author = "Hello World"
}
static classDetails() {
return `${this.className} by
${this.author}`
}
}

Utility.classDetails() // Utility Functions by

Hello World

Private Method Fields

Private method fields are not available outside of the class itself. While
constructors in classes cannot be private, everything else can be. The
following example shows a private field defined inside a class. Private
fields are defined with a hash at the start:

let myClass = class {

#privateField = 1
}

let newClass = new myClass()

If we try console logging newClass, privateField will not be

available. Furthermore, trying to refer to
newClass.#privateField will throw a syntax error.

Note While private fields will throw errors in code if referred to

outside of a class, they may show in the console in some browsers.
That is because it can be useful in console logs and debugging to be
able to access these fields.
While all the other features of classes are just features objects already
had, private fields are actually new functionality that are only available
via classes. Private fields are not available on objects in the same way as
they are in classes.

Class Inheritance via Extends

Since classes are mostly syntactic sugar on top of objects, they also have
typical prototypical inheritance too. If you create a new class which
extends another class, the class which extends will simply become the
prototype of the child class. Consider the following example, using our
HotSauce class:

class HotSauce {
// Fields here are added to this, so they are
available
// via this.units and this.maxHotness in
methods
units = 'scoville'
maxHotness = 20000000

constructor(name, hotness) {
// We can assign arguments from new
instances of
// our class to this as well
this.hotness = hotness
this.name = name
}
getName() {
if(this.hotness < this.maxHotness) {
return `${this.name} is
${this.hotness} ${this.units}`
}
else {
return `${this.name} is too hot!`
}
}
}
 From Figure 6-5, you’ll see that the prototype of this class contains
the methods getName() and the constructor. To further explain
this concept, let’s create a new class which extends this, called
VeganHotSauce. This logically makes sense since only some hot
sauces are vegan:

class VeganHotSauce extends HotSauce {

constructor(meat, name, hotness) {
super(name, hotness)
this.meat = meat
}

checkMeatContent() {
if(this.meat) {
return "this is not vegan"
}
else {
return "no meat detected"
}
}
}

let newVeganOption = new VeganHotSauce(false,

"Vegan Lite", 2400)
console.log(newVeganOption)

There are a few things going on here worth noting:

– We’re introducing the super() function for the first time. This is a
special function which calls the parent class, along with its
constructor. Here, this is the same as running new
HotSauce(name, hotness). Essentially, this means we’re
running the HotSauce constructor anytime VeganHotSauce is
run, while also setting this.meat to the meat variable from
VeganHotSauce.
– Using this keyword, our new constructor for VeganHotSauce can
pass arguments to the parent class. Here, we can pass the name and
 hotness.
– The outcome of running this class, which can be seen in Figure 6-6.

Figure 6-6 VeganHotSauce contains all the top-level properties from HotSauce at the top
level too. Methods for VeganHotSauce are contained within its prototype, and methods from
HotSauce are in its prototype’s prototype

As you might expect, both static and private methods are not
inherited when using extends. That is because both, conceptually,
belong to the parent class.

Class Inheritance Super Keyword

We used the super keyword in the VeganHotSauce example to call its
parent class. The super keyword is special in JavaScript since it behaves
differently depending on where you put it. If you put super in a
constructor for an extended class, it can be used as a function – so
super(...arguments) is completely valid.
Meanwhile, outside of constructors, you can only use super in the
form super[field] or super.field to call upon parent
properties. In fact, if you try to call it as a function outside of the
constructor, an error will be thrown. That means in a class’s
methods, we can use super only to reference properties of the parent
class. So for example, if we wanted to use our parents method,
getName(), in our child class VeganHotSauce, then we’d call
super.getName():

class VeganHotSauce extends HotSauce {

constructor(meat, name, hotness) {
super(name, hotness)
this.meat = meat
}

checkMeatContent() {

console.log()
if(this.meat) {
return "this is not vegan.. but " +
super.getName()
}
else {
return "no meat detected.. and " +
super.getName()
}
}
}

let newVeganOption = new VeganHotSauce(false,

"Vegan Lite", 2400)
// console logs
// no meat detected.. and Vegan Lite is 2400
scovilles
console.log(newVeganOption.checkMeatContent())

It is worth noting that while we can call super.getName(), we

can’t call super.units – and that’s because units are not on the
prototype of VeganHotSauce. Take a look at Figure 6-6 again, and
you’ll see why.
Even though units is a parent property, when inherited it appears on
the VeganHotSauce class instead. The super keyword is used to
access prototype methods and properties from the parent class. If we
want to access units, we have to use this.units rather than
super.units.

Summary
In this chapter, we’ve covered quite a lot of ground on functions and
classes. We’ve shown you how to create functions and how they inherit
based on prototypical inheritance. We’ve talked about how to give
functions context with the this keyword. We’ve also looked at the
many different ways you can define functions in your code, and how
they differ. Finally, we’ve looked at classes, and explained how they are
mostly syntactic sugar for objects. We’ve gone into detail
using examples on how class inheritance work in JavaScript. While
classes can be familiar to some developers, if you find it hard to
understand or unintuitive, it’s still fine to just work with functions and
prototypical inheritance where necessary.
Whether you decide to use classes or functions is mostly stylistic. In
JavaScript, many developers use functions since that’s the way the
language was originally devised. As mentioned before, the most
important thing is that you maintain consistency in your code and that
your team understand what the code you are writing means.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_7

7. Types
Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

In software development, a type refers to a property we apply to a

language construct to describe what the data is about. In this
description, a language construct refers to something like an expression
or variable. We’ve already discussed how JavaScript is both weakly and
dynamically typed, which means we do not have to explicitly declare
types on language constructs. That does not, however, make types in
JavaScript any more straightforward than other languages, and in some
ways, it makes things more complicated! Types are where some of the
more unusual quirks of JavaScript come to roost, so getting a good
grasp on them can be tricky.
Since we will be talking about types in this chapter, it’s useful to
understand how to find the type of something. The type of anything can
be found using the typeof keyword:

console.log(typeof 5) // 'number'
console.log(typeof "name") // 'string'

Primitive Types
Primitive types are types which have no methods or properties by
default, and are not objects. These types of data cannot be changed
once they are defined, and in memory terms are stored on the stack. In
JavaScript, there are a total of 7 primitive types, all of which are all
listed in Table 7-1. We’ve seen some of these types already in our code.
Table 7-1 JavaScript primitive types

Operators Definition
number Any numeric value
For example:
let x = 5
string Any string value
For example:
let x = "Hello World"
bigint Any integer which is defined as bigint (has an n after the integer). Used for
creating safe integers beyond the maximum safe integer limit
For example:
let x = 1000n
undefined Any undefined data (i.e., a variable with no value)
For example:
let x = undefined
boolean Any true or false value
For example:
let x = true
null A reference that points to a nonexistent address in memory
For example:
let x = null
symbol A guaranteed unique identifier
For example:
let x = Symbol("id")

Note null is not an object, but typeof null returns object as

its type. This is a long-standing bug in JavaScript, but it cannot be
fixed because it would break too many code bases.

Primitive Wrappers
By definition, primitives have no methods, but they often behave as
though they do. Every primitive type except for null and undefined
are associated with what are known as wrapper objects, which are
referenced every time you try to call a method on a primitive type. As
an example, the wrapper object for string types is called String. You
can find all the methods you can apply to strings by console logging
String.prototype, which can be seen in Figure 7-1.

Figure 7-1 Console logging the prototype of a wrapper object like String will give you all the
methods that can be applied to that type. All the preceding methods can be applied directly to
any string

The wrapper objects for common JavaScript types are as follows:

– Object
– Symbol
– Number
– String
– BigInt
– Boolean
 If you ever need to know what methods are available to various
types, you can find them by console logging Wrapper.prototype,
where Wrapper is Object, Symbol, Number, etc.
Calling methods from a wrapper on a primitive type can be done
directly on the primitive itself or on a variable pointing to the primitive.
In the following example, we use one of those methods, .at(), on a
string and on a variable of type string:

let someVariable = 'string'

someVariable.at(1) // 't'
'string'.at(2) // 'r'

This applies to all types, so the methods found on

Object.prototype can be applied directly to any Object. The only
slight quirk to this is that if you want to apply a number method to a
Number type, you have to wrap the number in brackets. This might
seem strange, but it’s because the dot after a number is interpreted as a
decimal point, not the start of a new method. You can also call number
methods on a number by using two dots, where the first dot is the
decimal, and the second refers to the method. This can be seen in the
following example:

(5).toString() // '5'
5..toString() // '5'

Number methods can also be called via Number.toString().

Number.toString(5) // '5'

Another thing worth noting is that primitive wrappers can

sometimes define static methods and properties that can be called
directly on the wrapper itself. We covered static methods in a previous
chapter on functions.
MAX_SAFE_INTEGER is found on the Number wrapper object, so
calling Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER gives the maximum safe integer
that can be used in JavaScript. You can see this in action in Figure 7-2.
Figure 7-2 Some wrapper objects have static properties and methods which can come in
useful when coding. Here is the max safe integer, found on the Number wrapper

As another example, the static method keys() can be found on the

Object wrapper, and can be called to get the keys of any Object:

Object.keys({ "hello" : "world", "goodbye" :

"world" }) // [ "hello", "goodbye" ]
To summarize what we’ve discussed so far:
1.
A number of primitive types exist in JavaScript which have no
methods or properties by default. They are also immutable. These
are things like string, number, and boolean.
2.
All types in JavaScript, including primitives and objects, inherit
methods from wrapper objects. So all data of type string will
inherit all the methods found on String.prototype.
3.
If you need to find out what methods you can use on any type of
data in JavaScript, you could google it… or you could
console.log the wrapper prototype to see them all like
console.log(String.prototype).
4.
Methods found on the top level of a wrapper object’s prototype (i.e.,
String.prototype.at()) can be called directly on anything of
that type – for example, 'string'.at(2).
5.
Static methods exist on most wrapper objects. These are usually
found in a constructor function of that wrapper, that is,
Number.constructor.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER, and they must be
called via the wrapper object – like Object.keys(), or
Object.values().
Using Wrappers to Create Types
Wrappers can be used to create new data of a certain type. For example,
a new string can be created like so, with the added benefit of also
coercing other types to the strings:

let newString = String("hello") // "hello"

let objString = String({ "some" : "object" }) // "
[object Object]"
let newString = String(5) // "5"

The same works for numbers, which coerces numerical strings into
numbers:

let newNumber = Number("5") // 5

While calling Number() and String() like this creates a new

primitive, calling it as a classic constructor with the new keyword will
lead to some unexpected behavior. For example, new String will
create an object without an accessible primitive value:

let newString = new String("hello") // String {

"hello" }
let newNumber = new Number(5) // Number { 5 }

The behavior of using these primitive wrappers as constructors is

quite unreliable, so it’s generally recommended you avoid this. Newer
types aren’t even compatible with the new keyword – so new
Symbol() and new BigInt() both throw type errors.

The Number Type and NaN

We’ve already spoken about null and undefined, which represent
something with no value or something which is undefined. Another
value, NaN, can also appear in your code if you try to create a number
out of something that is clearly not a number. An example of how you
would achieve this is by wrapping it in Number(), like we did
earlier, or by using a method to coerce it to an object like
parseFloat() or parseInt():

parseInt("5") // the Number 5

parseInt({ "key" : "value" }) // NaN

Parsing an object or something that is not easily coerced to a

number returns NaN or “Not a Number.” NaN is a global property. NaN
has some weird behavior. It is the only value in JavaScript that does not
equal itself, for example:

NaN === NaN // false

5 === 5 // true

The reason NaN behaves this way is defined in a specification called

IEEE 754. In a way, having NaN not equal itself makes some sense. If it
did, then NaN/NaN would equal 1, which would be a number. While it
may seem logical to assume that it does not equal itself because it’s an
object with a different reference, NaN is not an object.In fact, even
though NaN means “Not a Number,” it’s of type number if you check:

typeof NaN // "number"

The confusion does not stop there. Since we can’t check if

something is NaN by doing NaN === NaN, we have a function called
isNaN to do the job instead:

isNaN(5) // false
isNaN(NaN) // true

If something is NaN, this function returns true. If something is of

type number, it will tell you if it’s NaN or not. If something is another
type, it will coerce that data to a number and then tell you if it’s a
number – and some of those conversions are unexpected.
For example, boolean values like true and false become 1 and 0. So
isNaN(false) and isNaN(true) both return false even though
true and false are not numbers. An empty string will also be parsed as
false and therefore turn into 0, meaning it will also return false. Arrays
of one number also become number types. This makes isNaN relatively
unreliable for checking if something is a number or not:

isNaN(" ") // false

isNaN(NaN) // true
isNaN(false) // false
isNaN([5]) // false

To fix this, JavaScript added a new method later on, which does not
coerce data into numbers if it wasn’t a number in the first place. The
name of that method is the same, but it’s found via Number.isNaN(),
instead of isNaN() (or window.isNaN()). This is, to say the least, a
little confusing.
So while isNaN("hello") is false since Number("hello")
converts to NaN, Number.isNaN("hello") is false since "hello"
is not equal to “NaN.” As such, Number.isNaN is a much more
reliable way to check if something is NaN since no type coercion is
involved – but it only checks for direct equality to NaN itself.
In summary:
– isNaN() coerces types to numbers. For example,
isNaN("hello") will perform Number("hello") which results
in NaN, and this will return true.
– Number.isNaN() will not coerce types to numbers. It will return
false when asked Number.isNaN("hello") since “hello” does not
equal NaN.

Number Type Mathematics

Number types do contain some constants relating to JavaScript itself,
like Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER, but the Number wrapper object
does not contain mathematical constants, which are extremely useful
when working with Number types. Instead, JavaScript has another
global object called Math, which contains these properties along with
some useful methods. A list of all mathematical constants can be found
in Table 7-2.
Table 7-2 Mathematical constants in JavaScript

Mathematical Constant What It Returns Value (to 3dp)

Math.PI Returns PI 3.141 ...
Math.E Returns Euler's number 2.718 ...
Math.E Returns Euler's number 2.718 ...
Math.LN2 Returns ln(2) 0.693 ...
Math.LOG10E Returns log10(e) 0.434 ...
Math.LOG2E Returns log2(e) 1.442 ...
Math.LN10 Returns ln(10) 2.302 ...
Math.SQRT2 Returns the square root of 2 1.414 ...
Math.SQRT1_2 Returns the square root of 1/2 0.707 ...

These mathematical constants can be used in any mathematical

equation, using standard mathematical notation. For example:

let x = 5 * Math.PI // 5 times Pi

let y = 10 * Math.E // 10 times e

We’ve covered many mathematical operations in other examples

throughout the book. To ensure we’ve covered everything, here is the
full list, along with their definition. All of these can be applied to
Number types:
1.
+ (plus) – Adds two numbers together, that is, let x = 10 + 5
returns 15
2.
– (minus) – Subtracts one number from another, that is, let x =
10 – 5 returns 5
3.
/ (divide) – Divides one number by another, that is, let x = 10
/ 2 returns 5
4.
* (multiply) – Multiplies two numbers together, that is, let x =
10 * 10 returns 100
5. % (remainder) – Gets the remainder when dividing one number by
another, that is, let x = 12 % 5 returns 2 since the remainder
 , ,
of 12 / 5 is 2
6.
** Raises one number to the power of another, that is, let x = 5
** 2 returns 25 as it raises 5 to the power of two (5 squared)

Mathematical Methods
As we’ve mentioned, number types not only have the wrapper type
Number but also a utility global object called Math that contains a
bunch of mathematical constants and methods. While we’ve looked at
the constants already, the methods that exist on this global object are
also quite useful. It’s worth familiarizing yourself with some of
these. You can see some of these in Figure 7-3.

Figure 7-3 If in doubt about an object, always console log it! Console logging Math (which can
be done from your browser’s console log) shows you all the mathematical constants and
methods you can use

Some particular useful mathematical methods found on the math

global object include the following:
Math.abs(number) – Returns the absolute or magnitude of a
number (removes minus sign). So Math.abs(-2) returns 2.
Math.sign(number) – Returns the sign of a number. So
Math.sign(-144) returns -1, and Math.sign(4953) returns 1.
 Math.floor(number) – Rounds down a number, so
Math.floor(2.78764) returns 2.
Math.ceil(number) – Rounds up a number, so
Math.ceil(2.2344) returns 3.
Math.round(number) – Rounds a number as per normal
rounding rules. So Math.round(2.5) returns 3, and
Math.round(2.2) returns 2.
Math.max(number, number, …) – Returns the max number
from a set. So Math.max(4, 10, 15, 18) returns 18.
Math.min(number, number, …) – The same as Math.max but
returns the lowest value number.
Math.trunc(number) – Returns only the integer part of a
number. So Math.trunc(14.5819) returns 14.
Math.sqrt(number) – Square roots a number.
Math.cbrt(number) – Cube roots a number.
Math.random() – Returns a random number between 0 and 1.
Math.pow(number, power) – Returns a number raised to a
power. So Math.pow(2, 5) returns 32.
As well as these there are log methods, which are listed in the
following, and all geometric methods you would expect, like
Math.tan, Math.sin, Math.atanh, Math.asin, and so on:
Math.log(number) for the natural log of a number
Math.log2(number) for the base 2 log of a number
Math.log10(number) for the base 10 log a number
Math.log1p(number) for the natural log of the number plus 1
All of these methods are useful for manipulating number types. To
summarize what we’ve learned about Number types in this section:
1.
Number types have static methods assigned to them via the
Number wrapper. The Number wrapper also contains some
JavaScript constants relating to numbers.
2. A special value called NaN or “Not a Number” exists in JavaScript. It
signifies something which is not a number. It has some quirks (as
 we’ve explored) and a few utility methods like isNaN() and
Number.isNaN().
3.
Number types also have a utility object called Math, which
contains mathematical constants and useful mathematical static
methods.

The Date Type

One glaring omission which you may have already noticed is the lack of
a specific primitive “Date” type in JavaScript, unlike in other languages.
While variables and expressions cannot be given the type “date”, there
is a wrapper object called Date, which helps us manipulate dates.
Declaring the Date object returns a string of the current date, which
you can see in Figure 7-4.

let currentDate = Date() // The current date

Figure 7-4 Calling the Date() constructor will create a string of the current date and time

Unlike the other wrapper objects we’ve looked at, it’s actually better
to call Date as a constructor since you get a bunch of useful utility
methods along with it:

let currentDate = new Date() // Date Object

Dates in JavaScript are notoriously quirky, and most of the

strangeness is down to the fact that a date in JavaScript is actually a
date time. Under the hood, the dates which are returned by Date are
actually unix timestamp – but in milliseconds, instead of seconds. That
means that for day to day purposes, you usually need to divide this
number by 1000 from the get-go, for it to be useful.
 Once you have created a date, you can then use utility methods, like
getTime(), to convert this to the unix timestamp in milliseconds:

let date = new Date().getTime()

// Console logs the current timestamp.

console.log(date);
// i.e. 1625858618210

The various methods for getting dates in JavaScript are shown

below:
new Date().getDay() – Gets the day of the week counting from
0 and starting on Sunday, so Friday would be 5.
new Date().getDate() – Gets the date of the month, so the 9th
July would return 9.
new Date().getMonth() – Gets the number of the current
month counting from 0, so the 9th July would return 6.
new Date().getFullYear() – Gets the number of the current
year, that is, 2021.
new Date().getSeconds() – Gets the current seconds count.
new Date().getMilliseconds() – Gets the milliseconds count
(from 0 to 999).
new Date().getMinutes() – Gets the current minutes count.
new Date().getHours() – Gets the current hours count.
new Date().getTimezoneOffset() – Gets the time zone offset
from 0, counted in minutes.
new Date().toISOString() – Gets the date and time in the ISO
8061 standard.
It’s also worth noting that JavaScript’s Date() constructor can parse
date strings into dates, but since this behavior is not standardized
across browsers, it’s generally not recommended:

let newDate = new Date("2023-01-01")

console.log(newDate) // Gives Jan 1st 2023
 If you need to parse a date, it’s better to pass in the year, month, and
day separately – to ensure it works in all browsers:

let newDate = new Date("2023", "01", "01")

Alternatively, all the preceding get methods when changed to set

allow you to set a date. For example, getDate() becomes
setDate(), to set the day of the month; getFullYear() becomes
setFullYear(), and so on:

let newDate = new Date()

newDate.setFullYear("1993")
newDate.setDate("5")
newDate.setMonth("5")
console.log(newDate) // 5th June 1993

Dates can be converted to locale strings which are formatted in a

more user-friendly form. This configuration, while not the most flexible
thing in the world, can allow you to put dates into a more recognizable
format. The .toLocaleString() function accepts both a locale code
and a configuration object defining how the weekday, year, month,
day, hour, minute, and second should be defined. An example of
this is shown in the following:

let date = new Date()

let localOptions = { weekday: 'long', year:
'numeric', month: 'long', day: 'numeric', hour:
'numeric', 'minute' : 'numeric' }

let inFrench = date.toLocaleString('fr-FR',

localOptions);

// Returns vendredi 9 juillet 2021, 21:53

console.log(inFrench)

The locality defined here is fr-FR, but en-GB or en-US would also
be valid. The two-digit language comes first, followed by a dash, and
then the two-digit country code. These codes follow ISO 3166 and ISO
639, respectively.
We used toLocaleString() earlier, but
toLocaleDateString() and toLocaleTimeString() can also
be used. The difference is one returns the date while the other returns
just the time.

The Symbol Type

In a previous chapter on iteration, we covered how we can access step-
by-step iteration via the iteration protocol found on any iterable type,
like arrays. To access this iteration, we used a key on all arrays called
“Symbol.iterator”:

let myArray = [ "apple", "squid", "speaker" ]

let getIterator = myArray[Symbol.iterator]()
console.log(getIterator)

This iterator property utilises symbols. Symbols are special

primitives which always guarantee a unique value. They are quite
useful in objects where keys may be introduced that could conflict with
existing ones.
Imagine, for example, you had a specific property on an object called
“id,” which you did not want changed. With normal property keys, this
can happen quite easily:

let myObject = { "id" : "some-id" }

myObject.id = "some-other-id"

This can be avoided with symbols. In the following example, we

create a new symbol for “id,” and try to create another key on the object
using a symbol for “id” again. Even though Symbol("id") ===
Symbol("id") may seem like it should be true, they will both refer to
different things. As such we can access both keys independently. You
can see the output of this code in Figure 7-5.

let idSymbol1 = Symbol("id")

let idSymbol2 = Symbol("id")

let myObject = { [idSymbol1]: "some-id",

[idSymbol2] : "some-other-id" }

console.log(myObject[idSymbol1]) // "some-id"
console.log(myObject[idSymbol2]) // "some-other-
id"

Figure 7-5 Symbols allow for the creation of unique keys which are unique regardless of their
name, allowing you to avoid key conflicts when adding new items to objects

While the preceding code has allowed us to create unique values

using the Symbol constructor, you can still create unique keys with
symbols that do override each other. Symbol.for() will find a
symbol for a specific key or create one if it is not found. This will mean
that you can only create one symbol “for” a specific key. In our previous
example, this would allow the keys to override each other:

let idSymbol1 = Symbol.for("id")

let idSymbol2 = Symbol.for("id")

let myObject = { [idSymbol1]: "some-id",

[idSymbol2] : "some-other-id" }

console.log(myObject[idSymbol1]) // "some-other-
id"
console.log(myObject[idSymbol2]) // "some-other-
id"
 Symbol.keyFor() is the opposite of Symbol.for(), and it allows you to
retrieve the text value of the symbol key:

let someSymbol = Symbol.for("id")

let getSymbolKey = Symbol.keyFor(someSymbol) //
"id"

Note In these examples, we set symbols as the keys of our object

using square brackets. If you do not use square brackets, JavaScript
won’t know that you are referring to the variable.

Truthy and Falsy Types

Now that we’ve covered many of the core principles of types in
JavaScript, let’s begin looking at how JavaScript handles data which it
deems to be true-like or false-like. Since JavaScript doesn’t have
strongly defined types, a gray area emerges regarding the definitions
for the booleans true and false. Since it makes sense that some
values in JavaScript can be considered “sort of” false, like null and
undefined, it’s also true that some values can be considered “sort of”
true.
These “sort of true” and “sort of false” values are known as truthy
and falsy, respectively. The fact that they are only “sort of” true or false
has some major implications for how we write code.
The main way this comes into play is in control statements. Truthy
statements are coerced to true and falsy ones to false when used in
any control sstatement. Therefore, if(null) would never fire since
the null becomes false, since it is falsy, but if("string") would
run, since “string” is truthy. The reason “string” is truthy is because a
string is not a falsy statement, so by default, it is “truthy”.
All examples of falsy data are shown in the following, and
everything not listed here is therefore considered to be truthy
instead:

// Falsy values in Javascript

NaN // NaN is falsy
0 // 0 is falsy
-0 // -0 is falsy
undefined // undefined is falsy
null // null is falsy
"" // Empty strings are falsy
'' // Empty strings are falsy
'' // Empty strings are falsy
document.all // document.all is the only falsy
object
false // false is of course falsy

Truthy and Falsy Operators

Since the concepts of truthy and falsy data have become entrenched in
JavaScript, there are some interesting ways to handle them. Some of
these will be familiar, but in the context of “truthy/falsy” variables, they
will make more sense.

Logical AND Operator

First off, let’s look at an operator we discussed when looking at logical
statements – the logical AND operator. We used this in earlier chapters
to chain conditions for if statements:

let x = 5
if(x > 0 && x < 10) {
console.log("hello world")
}

Although usually seen joining logical statements together, it is still,

in its simplest form, an operator. While it may seem like all it’s doing is
acting like the keyword “AND”, it’s actually doing something else.
What’s happening under the hood is the operator is returning the
first “falsy” value from either side of && operator and returning that as
the value.
In the following example, we’re first asking, is x > 0 falsy? If it is,
then return its result. Otherwise, it’s truthy, so check the next
statement. If the next statement is falsy, return it. Otherwise, return the
last statement anyway. So the preceding statement actually returns x <
10, which is true, and thus the if statement is true:

if(x > 0 && x < 10) {

If one of our conditions were false, then the if statement would

immediately return it. For example, the following if statement returns
the first falsy statement (x < 0), which is false, and thus the if
statement never fires. Therefore both sides of the statement must be
true for the if statement to fire:

let x = 5
if(x < 0 && x < 10) {
console.log("hello world")
}

This means that the logical AND operator can be used in variables
too. For example, the following variable myVariable returns “hello
world” since x > 0 is truthy:

let myVariable = x > 0 && "hello world"

Logical OR Operator
We’ve also encountered the logical OR operator before. In actuality, the
OR operator is just the opposite of the logical AND operator. While AND
returns the first falsy value, OR returns the first truthy value instead!
Much like AND, then, it can be used in logical statements and
variables. The difference is that OR will check if the first value is truthy
and return it if it is. Otherwise, if it’s falsy, it will return the next value
instead:

let someValue = 5
let x = 0 || "hello world" // "hello world", since
0 is falsy
let y = null || someValue < 0 // false, since null
is falsy, it returns the second value
let z = "hello world" || 0 // "hello world", since
"hello world" is truthy

Nullish Coalescing
What we’re seeing here is that falsy and truthy are a little messy. Since
data is being coerced into either false or true, some unexpected
behavior can occur. For example, falsy can mean all sorts of things, such
as 0, undefined, null, document.all, and NaN.
Long after truthy and falsy established themselves in the language,
JavaScript came up with the idea of nullish coalescing. This is an
alternative to the truthy and falsy behavior seen in logical AND/logical
OR operators.
Nullish coalescing, which is indicated by the ?? operator, will only
return the second part of a statement if the first is null or
undefined. This confines checks to two well-defined primitives,
making behavior a little more reliable. In the following code, you can
see some examples of how it works in practice:

let x = undefined ?? 0 // returns 0

let y = false ?? 0 // returns false
let z = x === 0 ?? 1 // returns true, since x does
= 0.
let a = '' ?? true // returns true, since '' is
not null or undefined (it is falsy)
let b = null ?? 5 // returns 5, since null is null
or undefined

All of the operators we’ve looked at here, like the logical AND/OR
operators, and nullish coalescing operators can be chained. We’ve
looked at this in previous chapters, but let’s look at how it executes in
the code. For example, we can chain the && operator like so:

let x = true && 0 && false

Which will ultimately compile to this, since in 0 && false, 0 is the

first falsy result:
let x = true && 0

And then finally to this:

let x = 0

In summary, there are three operators that take into consideration

truthy, falsy, or null-like data:
1.
The Logical AND operator, which will return the first value if it’s
falsy. Otherwise, it will return the second.
2.
The Logical OR operator, which will return the first value if it’s
truthy. Otherwise, it will return the second.
3.
Nullish coalescing, which will return the first value if it is not null
or undefined. Otherwise, it will return the second.

Optionality
The final topic we will cover in this chapter is optionality. Optionality is
another way we can control types. Specifically, optionality allows us to
control what happens if an undefined value appears where we didn’t
expect it to.
Let’s consider an example. Imagine we have an API which sends us
data in object form. The object sometimes looks like this:

let userObject = {
"name" : "John",
"age" : "42",
"address" : {
"flatNumber" : "5",
"streetName" : "Highway Avenue"
"zipCode" : "12345"
}
}
 But what if the API can also send us data in a slightly different from,
like this?

let userObject = {
"name" : "John",
"age" : "42",
"address" : {
"houseNumber" : "5",
"streetName" : "Highway Avenue"
"locale" : {
"state" : "AZ",
"city" : "Cityopolis"
}
}
}

In this example, sometimes, the address format is different. Ideally,

we’d want to fix the object upstream, so we reliably get it in the right
format, but that is not always possible.
Imagine a use case where our code depends on a city being available
so that we can tell the viewer where John is from:

let cityString = 'John is from

${userObject.address.locale.city}'

This will work fine if we get an object with the city in it, but if it’s
missing, then userObject.address.locale.city will return
“undefined.” Worse still, if locale is missing (like in the first object),
then JavaScript will return an error since it cannot get the property
“city” of undefined, as undefined is not an object:

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of

undefined (reading 'city')

This error is really common in JavaScript and when working with

objects since JavaScript does not have a native way to make objects
conform to a certain format. One-way programmers used to get around
it was by checking every level of an object, to see if it was undefined or
not. This requires quite long if statements:

if(userObject && userObject.address &&

userObject.address.locale &&
userObject.address.locale.city) {
let cityString = 'John is from
${userObject.address.locale.city}'
}

Using this method, we would only ever create cityString if

userObject, address, locale, and city were all defined. This
works, but it is messy, and that’s where optionality comes in.
Optionality lets us short circuit the statement if it finds a value of
null or undefined, without throwing an error. To ensure we do not run
into errors, we could try running something like this:

if(userObject && userObject.address &&

userObject.address.locale &&
userObject.address.locale.city) {

However, with optionality, we can greatly simplify this statement.

The above statement, for example, could be written like this:

if(userObject?.address?.locale?.city) {

While this is a lot simpler, it will still return “undefined” if any

property in the chain is missing or undefined. That could mean the user
would see the word “undefined”, which is not something we want.
To avoid this scenario, we can use nullish coalescing to respond
with a default value if undefined is returned. This has an additional
benefit, in that it means we can remove the if statement altogether:

let cityString = 'John is from

${userObject?.address?.locale?.city ?? "an unknown
city"}'
 Now cityString will return “John is from [[city]]” if a city exists,
and it will return “John is from an unknown city” if it does not. Since we
didn’t need to use an if statement, a cityString is now always
available, and not confined within a block scope, even if the city is
undefined. Our final code with the userObject looks like this:

let userObject = {
"name" : "John",
"age" : "42",
"address" : {
"houseNumber" : "5",
"streetName" : "Highway Avenue"
"locale" : {
"state" : "AZ",
"city" : "Cityopolis"
}
}
}

let cityString = 'John is from

${userObject?.address?.locale?.city ?? "an unknown
city"}'

In summary, optionality gives us two major advantages:

1.
Without optionality, we needed to use a lot of nested if
statements. Now we don’t need any if statements in many cases,
reducing the complexity of our code.
2.
A missed undefined object could break an entire application.
Optionality means it won’t break but just return undefined.
It also gives us one major disadvantage:
1. Optionality can sometimes be used as a “get out of jail free card.”
Instead of fixing your upstream code so that it doesn’t return
undefined, some engineers use optionality to skip all errors. This
can make debugging a big headache.
 As with all tools we’ve looked at in JavaScript, it’s important to use
optionality responsibly. If you have a good reason, such as being unable
to influence an upstream piece of software, then using optionality
makes perfect sense. Using optionality without any control, however,
can create more problems for your codebase further down the road.

Summary
In this chapter, we’ve covered types. We’ve looked at primitive types,
objects, and their corresponding wrappers. We’ve explained how
although primitives do not have their own methods or properties, they
all automatically inherit wrappers, which gives them the illusion of
having methods and properties. We’ve also deep dived into some
important types that we haven’t looked at much up until now, like
numbers and dates. We’ve described how JavaScript’s type complexity
leads to interesting problems like truthy and falsy values, and their
corresponding operators. Finally, we look at optionality, and how it can
be used to contain errors when you don’t know that much about a
specific object. Types in JavaScript are easy to get started with,
but become more complicated as you get deeper into the detail. Having
a good grasp of how they work is a requirement for writing good
JavaScript code.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_8

8. Manipulating and Interacting with

HTML
Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

So far, we’ve only been looking at how we can create code to perform
certain calculations in JavaScript. At some point, we’re going to want to
convert that into actual user output which people can see on their
screens. Since JavaScript’s main purpose has always been to add
interactivity to web pages, there are many ways to achieve this.
In this chapter, we’ll be looking at how we can use JavaScript and
more specifically the document Web API to create interactivity and
actually affect what the user sees on the web page.

Window and Document Objects

To start understanding how JavaScript allows us to change what the
user sees in the browser, or add interactivity to certain elements like
buttons, let’s begin by understanding how two critical objects work.
There is only one global object in front end browser JavaScript, which
we’ve alluded to already, and this is the window object, which can be
accessed from anywhere. There is also another object which relates
entirely to the HTML document on the window object. These objects
are defined below:
window is the global this object for browsers. It contains many
global methods and also key information on the window and user.
 document exists on the window object, so it can be accessed via
window.document. It contains what is known as the DOM or
document object model, along with many useful methods for
manipulating and interacting with the document.
These two objects are really important for front end
development: The window object holds a lot of useful methods and
properties on the user and their current activity, such as the current
screen size and scroll position. The document object, on the other
hand, gives us methods and properties relating to the HTML document
itself. For example, document.URL refers to the URL for the current
HTML document.
You can get a feel for what is available on both of these objects by
console logging them in either your console or a script you are writing.

Note Since all window methods are available globally, you can skip
window. For example, window.alert() is a function used for
creating an alert box that the user can’t skip. It can be called as just
alert(). That is also why you can access document via just
document, rather than window.document.

The Window Object

Let’s look at how the window object works. The window object (Figure
8-1) has a lot of interesting information about the window that is
currently open. For example, you can find the following information on
it:
window.innerWidth and window.innerHeight, representing
the width and height of the window.
window.scrollX and window.scrollY, representing the x and
y axis scroll positions.
window.screenX and window.screenY, representing the x and
y coordinates in pixels of the user’s cursor.
Figure 8-1 Try console logging some of these window properties. You will find useful values
that are used all over the place in web development. These properties are also dynamic:
window.scrollX and window.scrollY will change as the user scrolls, while
window.screenX and window.screenY will change as the user moves their cursor

The window object also contains many useful methods and objects,
which we have used already. As mentioned, each of these can be
accessed without the window prefix:
window.console, which we’ve used extensively in this book. It is
used extensively for logging via window.console.log, which is
also written as just console.log.
window.alert(), which creates an alert box. Although not
recommended for general use, it is still used sometimes across the
Web. An example of this can be seen in Figure 8-2.
window.crypto, used for creating random UUID values and
numbers via crypto.randomUUID() and
crypto.getRandomValues().
window.localStorage(), for accessing local storage on the
browser.
Figure 8-2 Running a method like window.alert() will create an alert box that prevents
the page from being interacted with until the user clicks OK

The Document Object Model

Now that we understand the basics of what the window object
contains, let’s consider what is contained on the document, or
window.document object. This object contains the DOM or
document object model, which is a data representation of all HTML tags
on your page.
The DOM is an interface that we can interact with via code to
change, manipulate, update, and add to the HTML page itself. All HTML,
when loaded into a browser, is transformed into a DOM
representation. You can see an example of what happens when you
console log the DOM in Figure 8-3. Doing this will print out the
current HTML page.

Figure 8-3 Console logging document or window.document on any web page will return
the same thing since they both refer to the same object. In both cases, you’ll find a
representation of the HTML document returned

Selecting HTML Elements

All web pages mainly consist of HTML. The HTML loads first, and then
scripts or CSS styles will load later depending on where you put them.
If you’re familiar with CSS, you’ll know that you need to select which
HTML elements you want to apply CSS styles to. For example, consider
we have an HTML page which looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello World</p>
</body>
</html>

In CSS, if we wanted to make the paragraph have red text, it’s

relatively straightforward to apply a style which does that:

p {
color: red;
}

When adding interactivity to web pages, we have the same

requirements for element selection, and as such, JavaScript has the
same functionality as CSS. For example, what if we wanted the
paragraph to do something when the user clicks on it? Or, what if we
wanted the paragraph to be red, given some kind of condition?
The four main methods for selection of the DOM via JavaScript are
all attached to the document object. After selecting an HTML DOM
tag, we can then decide what we want to do with it. The five methods
for element selection are as follows:
document.querySelectorAll() – Which will return a list of
HTML elements matching a certain criteria
document.querySelector() – Which will return the first
matching HTML element found
 document.getElementById() – Which will return the first
element with a given ID (remember: an HTML ID should be unique,
anyway)
document.getElementByClassName() – Which will return a
list of HTML elements matching the class you specify
document.getElementByTagName() – Which will return a list
of HTML elements matching the tag name you specify, that is, “div”

The Order of HTML

These methods for HTML element selection are dependent on the DOM
already having loaded. To illustrate what this means, consider the
following example:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello World</p>
<p>Goodbye World</p>
</body>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Our JavaScript
</script>
</html>

Since HTML loads from top to bottom, the location of our JavaScript
actually matters. If we put JavaScript at the end of our HTML document,
as we have done here, then the DOM will have already loaded by the
time the script runs. If the DOM is loaded, we can use methods like
document.querySelector() without any concerns.
If you put your JavaScript in the head of the HTML
document instead, however, the DOM will not have loaded yet. That
means trying to select HTML elements will not work.
In these scenarios, you need to tell JavaScript to wait for the DOM to
load. To do that, we need to add what is known as an “event listener,”
which listens for specific events, to the HTML DOM (or document
object) itself. This event listener will “fire” whenever the DOM is loaded,
meaning you can only use methods like
document.querySelector() within the event listener body:

<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",
(e) => {
// JavaScript goes here…
})
</script>
</head>

Sometimes, you won’t have a choice on where your JavaScript goes,

but if you do, putting your JavaScript at the end of your HTML
document is usually easier. Not only can you skip the event listener
function, but it means your JavaScript will load last, allowing all your
other content to load first. That means faster load times for your user,
who can access your page before your JavaScript has been fetched.
With JavaScript at the bottom of our page, we can start selecting
elements immediately. In the following example, we use
document.querySelectorAll() to get a list of all paragraphs:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<p class="hello-paragraph">Hello World</p>
<p id="goodbye">Goodbye World</p>
</body>
<script type="text/javascript">
let allParagraphs =
document.querySelectorAll("p")
</script>
</html>

In this example, allParagraphs will contain a list of HTML

elements that match the selector “p” – which on this page, will be two
elements. While you might assume this variable is an array, it is actually
a special type of data known as a NodeList.

NodeLists and HTMLCollections

NodeLists, and their close cousin HTMLCollections, are slightly
different from arrays. When we use element selector methods, they
either generate a NodeList or HTMLCollection, depending on
which one is used:
document.querySelectorAll() returns a NodeList of
elements. These elements are of type HTMLElement.
document.querySelector() returns a single element of type
HTMLElement.
document.getElementById() returns a single element of type
HTMLElement.
document.getElementByClassName() returns an
HTMLCollection of HTMLElements.
document.getElementByTagName() returns an
HTMLCollection of HTMLElements.
In simple terms, these are sort of like arrays, but since they do not
inherit Array.prototype, they lack all of the standard methods that
arrays have. They instead inherit from NodeList.prototype and
HTMLCollection.prototype. As usual, console logging either of
these will tell you all of the methods available for each as is shown in
Figure 8-4.
Figure 8-4 Both NodeLists and HTMLCollections have different prototypes. As such, the
methods available on both will be different

There are two major differences between NodeLists and

HTMLCollections.
– Firstly, a NodeList contains methods like forEach(),
entries(), values(), and keys(), much like objects and arrays
do – while HTMLCollections do not.
– Secondly, HTMLCollections are live collections that will update if the
HTML DOM updates. NodeLists are static and taken from a certain
point in time, so they do not necessarily contain the most up to date
information on what is on the page.
In older browsers, both NodeLists and HTMLCollections are
neither iterable nor contain the method forEach. Even to this day,
HTMLCollections do not have a forEach method.
Due to the limitations of these types, it’s common to find both being
converted to arrays instead. This allows elements in each to inherit all
the useful methods found in Array.prototype. The most common
way to convert NodeLists or HTMLCollections to an array is shown in
the following example:

let allParagraphs = document.querySelectorAll("p")

let nodesToArray =
Array.prototype.slice.call(allParagraphs)

In the preceding example, we take the slice method straight from

Array.prototype and set its context or “this” value to that of the
NodeList we wish to convert.
 To explain why this works, inside the underlying code for the slice
method, this is used to create a shallow copy of an Array. Since a
NodeList is a numbered list of elements with a length property, it is
close enough to an array to be converted into one. Therefore this code
is a backwards compatible way to turn both NodeLists and
HTMLCollections into arrays, including in older browsers.
Another way to achieve the same goal is by using the Array.from
method instead:

let allParagraphs = document.querySelectorAll("p")

let nodesToArray = Array.from(allParagraphs)

Either way means we can then iterate over our Array using any
array methods, like forEach, or by using a for method like for...of:

let allParagraphs = document.querySelectorAll("p")

let nodesToArray =
Array.prototype.slice.call(allParagraphs)
nodesToArray.forEach((item) => {
// Do something with each element...
})

Note You may have heard of libraries and frameworks like jQuery,
Angular, React, and Vue. These are libraries that make it easier to
create and interact with web pages via JavaScript. All of these
libraries build off the fundamentals we are covering here.

Manipulating HTML After Selection

Now that we know how to select HTML elements, let’s look at how we
can change them. Since a selector like querySelectorAll returns a
NodeList, we need to iterate through each item to make sure we
apply code to all relevant DOM elements. We can easily do this with a
for loop. If you are concerned about old browser support (i.e. pre
Chrome 51, Internet Explorer), you can also convert allParagraphs
to an array instead, as we showed previously. Otherwise, the code looks
like this:
let allParagraphs = document.querySelectorAll("p")
for(let item of allParagraphs) {
item.style.color = "red"
}

Here, we used a property available on all HTML elements called

style to change the CSS property “color” of each paragraph. An example
of how this could look is shown in Figure 8-5. Since querySelectorAll
has a forEach method, we could have achieved the same results using
that method instead. The code for that is shown in the following
example:

let allParagraphs = document.querySelectorAll("p")

allParagraphs.forEach((item) => {
item.style.color = "red"
})

Note forEach loops are typically slower than for loops. If you can
use for loop, it’s always recommended.

If you only wanted to affect the first paragraph on a page, then you
can use querySelector("p"). In this case, you don’t need to loop
through each item, as only one will be returned.

let oneParagraph = document.querySelector("p")

oneParagraph.style.color = "red"

Figure 8-5 Using item.style.color allows us to programmatically update the text color of
HTML elements, as is shown in the preceding image

When processing a single DOM element in JavaScript, it always

inherits methods from HTMLElement.prototype. You can find out
about all of the methods available to individual HTML DOM elements by
using console.log:

console.log(HTMLElement.prototype)
 All HTML DOM elements also inherit from another wrapper object
called Element.prototype. The additional methods inherited from
Element.prototype can also be console logged. You can see the
output for both of these prototypes in Figure 8-6.

console.log(Element.prototype)

Figure 8-6 You can find all methods on HTMLElements by console logging the preceding two
prototypes. Events can also be found. For example, HTMLElements have the method onclick,
which represents the “click” event

So far we’ve only looked at generic queries to select HTML elements

using methods like querySelectorAll, but we can also select
elements based on their specific ID using getElementById too. This
will return only one element since IDs in HTML should be unique. If
your HTML document contains more than one tag with the same ID by
accident, then getElementById will only return the first element.
This method is slightly faster, so it’s preferable where possible to use.
In the following example, we style all paragraphs to have the text
color red, and then we style any with the ID “goodbye” in green.
Since goodbyeParagraph is still a paragraph, the first part of our
code will set its color to red initially. Then, when we apply the color
green to it, it will overwrite red – resulting in one red paragraph and
another in green. You can see the outcome of this in Figure 8-7.
HTML:

<p class="hello-paragraph">Hello World</p>

<p id="goodbye">Goodbye World</p>
 JavaScript:

let allParagraphs = document.querySelectorAll("p")

let goodbyeParagraph =
document.getElementById("goodbye")
for(let item of allParagraphs) {
item.style.color = "red"
}

goodbyeParagraph.style.color = "green"

Figure 8-7 How our HTML page looks after applying CSS styles via JavaScript to
allParagraphs and goodbyeParagraph

Adding Events to HTML Elements

Now that we understand that you can select HTML elements using a
variety of document methods, let’s look at how we can add user
interactivity to specific HTML elements.
To do that, we use a standard method found on all HTMLElements
called addEventListener. This method accepts three arguments.
The first is the type of event which the user is performing, like click,
hover, etc, and the second is a function that fires when the event is
triggered (i.e., what happens if a user clicks a button). The third
argument is an optional object containing additional options which are
applied to the event.
Let’s look at an example to better illustrate this. Consider a user
case wherewe want to add an event to a <div> with ID “click-me”
whenever the user clicks that <div>. First we select the element using
getElementById(). Then we add the event listener. In this case, the
event is called “click.” In the following code, whenever someone clicks
an element with ID “click-me,” a console will fire saying, “Hello World!”.
let getDiv = document.getElementById("click-me")
getDiv.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
console.log("Hello World!")
});

Creating a Modal Window

The previous example is relatively straightforward to understand, but
not very useful in real life. A more common functionality created using
event listeners are modal popup windows which appear when the user
clicks a button on a website. Let’s look at how we can create one of
these modal window using the concepts we’ve already looked at so far.
First, let’s create a basic HTML page as is shown in the following
example:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World Page</title>
<style>
#main-text {
opacity: 0;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<button id="click-me">Click Me</button>
<p id="main-text">Main Text</p>
</body>
</html>

While this page has no interactivity by default, we can change that

with JavaScript. You’ll notice that in our CSS, #main-text is hidden by
setting its opacity to 0. Let’s write some JavaScript so that if the user
clicks the button, "#main-text" will have it’s opacity adjusted to 1,
so that it appears:

let getButton = document.getElementById("click-

me")
getButton.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
let getMainText =
document.getElementById("main-text")
getMainText.style.opacity = 1
});

Using this code, whenever a user clicks a button with the ID “click-
me,” we fire off a function that sets the opacity of “main-text” to 1. This
has one problem, though: it only works once! When the user clicks the
button, it can only set the opacity of “Main Text” to 1. What if we want it
to appear or hide every time the button is clicked?
To do that, we can use CSS classes, and luckily all HTMLElements
have methods to alter CSS classes. These methods are found on
HTMLElement.classList. Let’s first change the HTML layout so
that we have a separate class for hidden elements with opacity values
of 0. With a setup like this, we don’t need to rely on adding styles
directly to the element #main-text anymore. Instead, we can change
the class which the HTML element has:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World Page</title>
<style>
.hidden {
opacity: 0;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<button id="click-me">Click Me</button>
<p id="main-text" class="hidden">Main
Text</p>
</body>
</html>
 In this HTML, #main-text is hidden by a CSS class called
.hidden. In JavaScript, we can change if #main-text has this class
but using the toggle method classList.toggle("hidden").
When run, this method will check if #main-text has the CSS class
hidden. If it does, it will remove it; otherwise, it will add it:

let getButton = document.getElementById("click-

me")
getButton.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
let getMainText =
document.getElementById("main-text")
getMainText.classList.toggle("hidden")
});

Using this simple code, we’ve immediately added interactivity to our

web page. Worth noting is the fact that classList contains other useful
methods:
HTMLElement.classList.contains("class") – For
checking if an HTML element contains a certain class
HTMLElement.classList.add("class") – For adding a class
to an element
HTMLElement.classList.remove("class") – For removing
a class from an element
HTMLElement.classList.replace("oldClass",
"newClass") – For replacing a class with a new class

Creating a Counter
To further our understanding of how we can interact with the HTML
DOM, let’s look at another example. In this simple example we will
create a counter which increases every time the user clicks a button.
Let’s start by creating an HTML page that contains both our counter
and a button to increase it:

<div id="counter">0</div>
<button id="plus-button">
Click Me
</button>

Next let’s create the JavaScript we’ll need to make this work. In the
following example, we check for click events on the “plus-
button” element. When one occurs, we take the text value from
“counter” and parse it into a number using a method we’ve covered
before, called parseInt. We add 1 to that number and then show that
new number to the user by inserting it into the counter element. This is
illustrated in the following code, and you can also seehow this looks in
Figure 8-8.

let button = document.getElementById("plus-

button")

button.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
let counter =
document.getElementById("counter")
let counterValue =
parseFloat(counter.textContent)
counter.textContent = counterValue + 1
})

Figure 8-8 Using everything we’ve learned so far, we can create a simple counter like the one
shown earlier
Event Types
In the previous examples, we’ve only looked at the click event, but there
are loads of other useful events in JavaScript too. The following is a list
of the events most important to HTMLElements, and the ones you’ll
find yourself using the most.

Event Name Description

click When a user clicks the page with a mouse.
scroll When a user scrolls inside an HTML element. Can also be applied to
the document in general.
dblclick When a user double-clicks.
keydown, When a user presses a key down (keydown), when it has been
keypress, keyup pressed (keypress), and then when it has been released (keyup).
mouseup, When a user clicks down (mousedown), releases their mouse button
mousedown, (mouseup), and moves their mouse while it is pressed down
mousemove (mousemove).
mouseleave, For handling when a user moves their mouse out of an element.
mouseout mouseout will only fire once, while mouseleave will fire for every div
it leaves.
touchstart, When a user touches on a touch device (touchstart), and when
touchend, they lift their finger (touchend). When a user moves their finger,
touchmove many touchmove events will fire.
pointerdown, This replicates touchdown/mousedown, touchup/mouseup, and
pointerup, touchmove/mousemove combined.
pointermove
pointerout, pointerout and pointerleave replicates
pointerleave, mouseout/mouseleave. pointerenter is when the user’s pointer
pointerenter enters a specific element.

Note While we’re covering vents pertinent to HTML elements in

this chapter, it’s worth noting that other types of data may have
event listeners too. As we saw earlier, the document object itself has
specific events like DOMContentLoaded.

Pointers, Touch, and Mouse

The events click, scroll, resize, and dblclick are relatively
self-explanatory. A common question that tends to crop up is the
question of why we seem to have duplicates for mousedown,
mousemove, and mouseup. For example:
For “up” events, we have mouseup/pointerup/touchup.
For “down” events, we have
mousedown/pointerdown/touchdown.
For move events, we have
mousemove/pointermove/touchmove.
As with most anomalies in JavaScript, the reason is historical. When
JavaScript started, there weren’t really any touch devices – and even
when touch devices were becoming popular, JavaScript was slow to
react. So in the beginning, JavaScript only saw the need for three events:
mousedown – For when the user pressed their mouse button down
mousemove – For when they moved it
mouseup – For when they released it
This allowed us to do some neat things which click could not
achieve. For example, we could store information on when the user
pressed their mouse down and then do something if they continued to
move it. In the following example, we can test if the mouse is down by
using the mouseup and mousedown event listeners and a variable that
stores that state. Then we can check on this variable to do something
specific if the user moves their mouse while it is clicked:

let isMouseDown = false

document.addEventListener("mousedown", function(e)
{
isMouseDown = true
})
document.addEventListener("mousemove", function(e)
{
if(isMouseDown) {
console.log("The user is dragging!")
}
})
document.addEventListener("mouseup", function(e) {
isMouseDown = true
})

This kind of setup was most frequently seen when trying to add
drag and drop to web pages. When touch devices came, it complicated
things. We couldn’t really remove mouse events, but we needed new
ones for touch. So JavaScript added touch equivalents: touchdown,
touchmove, and touchup.
As device user experience began to merge across both mouse based
devices and touch devices, and code bases became more and more
complicated, having these two separate events became a bit of a
nuisance. To remedy this final problem, JavaScript created three new
events: pointerdown, pointermove and pointerup. These fire for
both touch and mouse events, meaning there is no need to run both
events separately.
The reason we have three is historical, but it is also sometimes
useful. For example, we can detect if someone is interacting via a touch
device, just by checking for the touchdown event firing:

document.addEventListener("touchdown", function(e)
{
// Touch device
})

Event Capturing, Targeting, and Bubbling

Let’s deep dive into how events actually work under the surface. When
an event fires, they follow four main steps, and they make intuitive
sense. How this works can also be seen in Figure 8-9.
1.
First, the user performs an event. For example, they click an
element.
2.
Then, the event is applied to the element, known as the target
phase.
3. Most events bubble up from where the event occurs. For example, a
click may occur deep in the DOM, but this will trigger an event
 listener on all parent elements too, known as the bubble phase.
4.
An alternative way of triggering events can also occur. This is where
events propagate from the top down. If this is used, it is known as
the capture phase.

Figure 8-9 When an event is performed by the user, JavaScript can either propagate the event
from the top down or the bottom up

By default, all events fire by bubbling. To understand the concept of

bubbling, consider the following HTML:

<div id="my-div">
<div class="some-div">
<p class="paragraph">Hello World</p>
</div>
</div>

If we have some JavaScript adding an event to #my-div, something

interesting happens:

document.getElementById("my-
div").addEventListener("click"...
 If the user performs an event (e.g., click) on .paragraph, we also
have to remember that it is contained within #my-div. While the user
clicked .paragraph, they are technically also clicking #my-div. So
the event you performed bubbles up from where the event happened to
#my-div, firing the addEventListener we had for #my-div.
In other words, the event the user applied to an element bubbles up
through the DOM. Similarly, if #my-div is within the body tag, then a
click event assigned to the body will still fire if #my-div is clicked. As
such, the event bubbles up from where it happened, until it hits the
item with an event listener. This is illustrated in Figure 8-10.

Figure 8-10 Some events will bubble up to the next element in the DOM by default. Clicking
#my-div also counts as a click on body and document

Bubbling can be prevented in an event by running

e.stopPropagation within it. This function exists on the e variable
that comes with all events. That will confine a click or event to the
element you apply it to:

document.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
e.stopPropagation()
})
 There is also a method called e.stopImmediatePropagation,
which has a similar name but is slightly different. Not only will
e.stopImmediatePropagation stop further bubbling of an event upward,
but it will also stop any further event handlers of that type from being
added to the element. For example, if you used
e.stopImmediatePropagation within a click event for an
element, any other click events added to that element would not work.
Note: Some events do not bubble, and these are listed below:
scroll – Since you only ever scroll in one element, and a scroll
should not cause another scroll somewhere else.
load – Since you tend to apply this event to check if certain elements
have loaded – for example,
document.addEventListener("load"), to check if the DOM
has loaded.
focus – Since you focus on only one element. This event is fired, for
example, if you focus in on a form element.
blur – The opposite of focus, so the same applies as for focus.

Capturing Phase
We can force events to fire via capturing instead of bubbling. This
ultimately has the impact of changing the order in which events occur.
Consider again our example from earlier:

<div id="my-div">
<div class="some-div">
<p class="paragraph">Hello World</p>
</div>
</div>

In this example, we had some JavaScript tying an event to #my-div:

document.getElementById("my-
div").addEventListener("click", someEvent)

If we click .paragraph, this is what happens by default:

The click event is performed by the user.
 The event is then applied to the target itself, which in this case, was
.paragraph.
The event moves into the bubbling phase, and someEvent is
executed.
To change this to capture, addEventListener has a third
argument though, where we can store options. Using this, we can
configure an event to fire during capture:

document.getElementById("my-
div").addEventListener("click", someEvent, {
capture: true })

Using this code, the same thing happens from a user perspective,
but it’s subtly different in terms of code execution:
The click event is performed by the user.
JavaScript starts from the top down. For example, the browser would
apply click events to html → body → #my-div.
In bubbling, the order would have been .paragraph → .some-
div → #my-div. JavaScript goes down the DOM to find the element.
Setting an event to capture is not really used a lot, but it can come in
useful in some scenarios, where we want events to fire slightly earlier
than they otherwise would, since events applied in the capture phase
always happen before those applied via bubbling.

Other Event Options

As we just mentioned, addEventListener has a third option where
we can apply additional configuration:

el.addEventListener("click", (e) => {

}, {
capture: true,
once: false,
passive: true
})
 Along with capture, which we have already covered, there are two
other options:
once, which if set to true will cause an event to only fire on the first
attempt. By default, it is set to false.
passive, which prevents the behavior of e.preventDefault().
By default, it is set to false – except for wheel, mousewheel,
touchstart, and touchmove on non-Safari browsers, where it is
set to true.
The first two options are straightforward given what we’ve
discussed already, but the last requires some explanation.
First of all, e.preventDefault() is another method found on
the e variable. It prevents the default behavior that an event would
cause upon an HTML element, for example, e.preventDefault()
applied to click events on check boxes, preventing those check boxes
from being checked. Similarly, when applied to links, it stops those links
from being clicked. In the following code, for example, we use this
function to prevent all links on a page from being clicked:

let anchors = document.querySelectorAll('a')

for(let x of anchors) {
x.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
e.preventDefault()
})
}

Another use can be disabling certain keys. You could do this by

using e.code, which contains the key clicked for keyboard events:

document.getElementById("form-
input").addEventListener("keydown", function(e) {
if(e.code = "KeyE") {
console.log("Don't press the e key!")
e.preventDefault()
}
})
 This works since JavaScript events come before the actual default
behavior of inputs. That means your code fires before the actual key is
shown on the screen.
Now, let’s go back to the passive option. The main use case for
setting passive to true on an event is to improve scrolling for
wheel, touchmove, touchstart, and mousewheel events. Beyond
this, it does not have much utility. Most browsers even do this by
default now, but Safari does not. As such, you will need to enable
passive for these events to ensure they work smoothly in Safari.
The reason this improves scrolling is because all browsers have
features built in to ensure smooth scrolling. Events like wheel, which
also causes scrolling, interfere with this and thus have much reduced
performance when compared to scroll. By promising JavaScript that we
won’t prevent default scrolling behavior on these events, JavaScript is
freed up to process the scrolling immediately – resulting in much
smoother scrolling.

Live Data Using Events

Earlier in this chapter we discussed how the window object contains
many useful properties such as the mouse position and window size.
While useful, this data is not live. If you try to console log it, you’ll only
get its value for a point in time:

console.log(window.innerWidth) // The window

width, at this point in time

To get live data, we need to couple these properties with event

listeners. Let’s consider an example where we add a class to a header
element when the screen width is below 700 pixels.
First, it’s important to know that the window object also has some
important event listeners, like resize and scroll. The resize event
will fire for every pixel change in the window size, meaning we can
track the live window size using this event listener:

window.addEventListener("resize", function(e) {
let getHeader = document.getElementById("top-
banner")
 console.log(`The screen width is
${window.innerWidth}px`)
if(window.innerWidth < 700) {
getHeader.classList.add("small")
}
})

This can be used more simply to gain live data on screen or window
size, as is shown in the following example. You can see the result of this
code in Figure 8-11.

let screenWidth = window.innerWidth

window.addEventListener("resize", function(e) {
screenWidth = window.innerWidth
console.log(`The screen width is
${screenWidth}px`)
})
Figure 8-11 Applying an event like resize to a window will cause it to fire many times if the
user is resizing. This gives us flexibility to understand the current width of the window the user
is using

We can use the same concept to capture live data on the user’s
mouse position. This is really important in use cases like drag-and-
drop. If we want to know the live position of the user’s mouse cursor or
finger in a touch setting, we have to use an event since the window and
document properties only hold information on what the state was
when the page loaded. Code like that in the following will contain live
information on a user’s finger or mouse position as they move it. Any
movement will result in a new console line, just like any resize did in
Figure 8-11.

document.body.addEventListener("pointermove",
function(e) {
console.log(`The user's position is X:
${e.pageX}px Y: ${e.pageY}px`)
})

Drag and Drop

To help us summarize everything we’ve learned so far. and a few
other new concepts, let’s create a drag-and-drop demo. In this demo,
we’ll create a square div which we’ll be able to drag across the screen
and drop somewhere else. Then, if we try to drag it again, we’ll be able
to drag it somewhere else.
For this to work, we’re going to need some HTML and CSS. For our
HTML, we’ll only create the div which we’ll soon be able to drag:

<div id="drag"></div>

For our CSS, we’ll make a simple red square div:

#drag {
background: red;
width: 70px;
height: 70px;
position: relative;
margin: 20px;
left: 0;
top: 0;
color: white;
}
 Note We’ll be using relative positioning to move the div. As such,
it’s important we set a default left and top value so that we don’t
create a NaN value in our code.

We will utilize two new functions we haven’t seen before to make this
work. These two functions, getComputedStyle and
getPropertyValue, will let us retrieve the current CSS properties
for a given HTML element.
Let’s start by creating the bare bones we’ll need to add dragging to
the div we’ve created earlier. The comments in the following example
should also help you understand what is going on:

// Select the div we want to drag

let drag = document.getElementById("drag")
// getComputedStyle gets all CSS for an element
let dragCss = getComputedStyle(drag)

let dragging = false // Set to true if dragging is

happening

// These two variables store information

let initialMousePosition = [ 0, 0 ]
let initialBlockPosition = [ 0, 0 ]

drag.addEventListener("mousedown", (e) => {

dragging = true
initialMousePosition = [ e.screenX, e.screenY
]
initialBlockPosition = [
dragCss.getPropertyValue("left"),
dragCss.getPropertyValue("top")
]
})

drag.addEventListener("mouseup", (e) => {

dragging = false
})
 Let’s break down what is happening here in more detail
First, we select the div element #drag and store it in a variable
called drag. We then create another variable for getting all CSS
properties associated with drag, called dragCss.
Then we create three variables for storing information on the drag.
The variable dragging is set to true if mousedown fires and false
if mouseup fires instead. When mousedown fires, we also store the
initial mouse position in initialMousePosition.
Finally, we also retrieve the initial CSS properties for “left” and “top”
in initialBlockPosition using the getPropertValue()
function.

Note If you’re not familiar with CSS, the left and top properties
allow you to move an element by a certain amount from its original
location. Both left and top push the element from the left and top by
a certain amount, respectively.

Now let’s add the actual drag event. For this to work, we need to
calculate how much the user has moved their mouse by subtracting
their initial mouse position from wherever they’ve moved to. We will
only do this if the dragging variable is true, which implies the user
has clicked their mouse down on the draggable div.
All we need to do now is add this modification value to the left and
top values in initialBlockPosition and set the <div>’s CSS to match the
new value. We can then apply this number as a CSS left and top value to
move the div. I’ve also updated the element’s innerHTML so that it
contains information on the <div>’s current coordinates. The code for
this is shown in the following example, and can also be seen in Figure 8-
12.

document.addEventListener("mousemove", (e) => {

if(dragging) {
let x =
parseFloat(initialBlockPosition[0])
 let y =
parseFloat(initialBlockPosition[1])

let modificationX = e.screenX -

initialMousePosition[0]
let modificationY = e.screenY -
initialMousePosition[1]

drag.style.left = `${x + modificationX}px`

drag.style.top = `${y + modificationY}px`

drag.innerHTML = `x: ${x +

modificationX}pxSPi-Amp-LessThanbr /SPi-Amp-
GreaterThan y: ${y + modificationY}px`
}
})

Figure 8-12 Using the tools we’ve learned about so far, we can add drag-and-drop
functionality to our web pages by calculating the position of a <div> element

The e variable
We’ve touched on a lot of important concepts around event listening
and DOM manipulation. In these examples, we’ve used methods from a
variable called e, which is available to all events when we called our
event listener function:

getButton.addEventListener("click", function(e) {

If you console log e, it contains a lot of information about the event

which is currently firing. It tends to contain information relevant to the
event – for example, if your event was a click event, it will tell you the
pageX and pageY – which is the x and y coordinates of where the user
clicked.
This can be used to your advantage – for example, if you wanted
something to happen when the user clicked somewhere on your
document, but only beyond an x position of 500 pixels and a y position
of 200 pixels. This might be useful if you want to record click events in a
certain part of the screen, but not in another, like what happens in a
web application with an interactable area:

document.body.addEventListener("click",
function(e) {
if(e.pageX > 500 && e.pageY > 200) {
console.log("Hello World!")
}
})

As we saw earlier, the e variable also contains information on the

key pressed via e.code on key press events:

document.getElementById("form-
input").addEventListener("keydown", function(e) {
console.log(`You pressed a key with the key
code ${e.code}`)
})

Since e is just a variable, you can console log it too. You can see an
example of the e variable for a click event in Figure 8-13.
Figure 8-13 The e variable is invaluable for events and can tell you all sorts of useful
information about what the user did in the event. Here is an example for a click event

Creating New Elements with JavaScript

We’ve now covered how we select elements and how we add events to
them, and how those events work – but what if we want to create new
HTML? For example, what if instead of just toggling some CSS, we
wanted to create a new HTML element from scratch when the user does
something? Well that’s also possible with JavaScript using another
document method called document.createElement:

let newEl = document.createElement("div")

We can make any element this way. Just change "div" in the
following example to the kind of element you want to make. Once we
initiate the creation of an element, we need to use some other methods
and properties to define how that element should be. In the following
example, along with using style and classList, we also use
setAttribute to create a custom attribute for newEl:

let newEl = document.createElement("div")

newEl.style.color = "red"
// Let's add a class called 'active' to it
newEl.classList.add("active")
// Let's add an attribute called 'data-attribute'
newEl.setAttribute("data-attribute", true)

To change what appears as text content inside of this element, we

can use the property, textContent:

// Let's add some text inside the div

newEl.textContent = "I am a created element."

If we want to add HTML instead, we can use innerHTML to set the

HTML inside this new element:

// Let's add some text inside the div

newEl.innerHTML = "<p>Hello World</p>"

Note Use innerHTML with care. While it is OK to use this in local

applications in many cases, it can be used maliciously by hackers to
add HTML you didn’t want. Always check the content going into
innerHTML and make sure you trust it!

While this has allowed us to make an HTML element, it still only exists
in JavaScript! So how do we actually add it to our HTML page? To do
that, we need to use a few methods that exist on all HTMLElements.
You can only really insert new HTML in JavaScript in relation to
other HTML. The methods and properties we have at our disposal to do
that are as follows:
 HTMLElement.prepend() – For adding a new HTML element
directly inside the HTMLElement, at the start
HTMLElement.append() – For adding a new HTML element
directly inside the HTMLElement, at the end
HTMLElement.before() – For adding a new HTML element
before a specified element
HTMLElement.after() – For adding a new HTML element after a
specified element
HTMLElement.innerHTML – For directly changing all the inner
HTML of an element into something else
To demonstrate how this works, imagine we have some HTML that
looks like this:

<div id="my-div">
<div class="some-div">
Some Text
</div>
<p class="para">Hello World</p>
<p class="para-2">Hello World</p>
</div>

We now also have some JavaScript for creating a new element:

let newEl = document.createElement("div")

newEl.style.color = "red"
// Let's add a class called 'active' to it
newEl.classList.add("active")
// Let's add an attribute called 'data-attribute'
newEl.setAttribute("data-attribute", true)
// Let's add some text inside the div
newEl.textContent = "I am a created element."
// Let's give our element an ID
newEl.id = "master-element"

We can insert this new element, newEl, into the HTML document
via reference to another HTML element. For example, we can prepend
newEl to the beginning of #my-div:

let findMyDiv = document.getElementById("my-div")

findMyDiv.prepend(newEl)

After doing this, if we look at our HTML we will see something like
this:

<div id="my-div">
<div id="master-element" data-attribute="true"
style="color: red;" class="active">I am a created
element</div>
<div class="some-div">
Some Text
</div>
<p class="para">Hello World</p>
<p class="para-2">Hello World</p>
</div>

The append method works in the same way, only it adds the
element to the end rather than the start of an element. If we want to get
more specific about where we insert elements, rather than just adding
it within another element at the start or end, we need to use before
and after. For example, the following code would insert newEl
directly after the .para element:

let findThePara = document.querySelector(".para")

newEl.after(findThePara)

Manipulating CSS with JavaScript

We’ve already touched upon how we can change CSS with JavaScript
through the style property. Now let’s look at these properties in more
depth.

HTMLElements and Changing Styles in JavaScript

The style property on HTMLElements allows for the manipulation of all
CSS properties. You can see some of these in the following example:

myEl.style.position = "relative"
myEl.style.left = "500px"
myEl.style.marginLeft = "10px"
myEl.style.color = "red"
myEl.style.width = "500px"
myEl.style.height = "500px"
myEl.style.padding = "0 0 0 10px"

In general, CSS styles are converted to camel case in JavaScript. So

while the CSS property for a left margin is called margin-left, in
JavaScript it becomes style.marginLeft. These rules are typically
consistent, but there is one exception, that being that float is referred
to as cssFloat.

Adding New Style Sheets to HTML Pages

While the style property on HTMLElement is by far the most common
way to set CSS in JavaScript, it is not the only way. It’s also possible to
add new CSS rules directly into existing CSS style sheets in your HTML
document. All CSS style sheets can be found on the object
document.styleSheets as an array. This includes CSS imported via
link HTML tags and inline CSS. The imported CSS comes first and then
the inline CSS later.
Stylesheets are also their own type of data, with each being known
as a CSSStyleSheet. That means, as you might expect by now, they
inherit a bunch of useful style sheet methods from
CSSStyleSheet.prototype. One of these methods is
insertRule, which lets you wholesale add new CSS blocks into
existing style sheets. In the following example, we add CSS to the first
style sheet found (index 0):

// This line gets our first style sheet file

let style = window.document.styleSheets[0]
// Then we insert our rule. In this case, our rule
is p { color: black; }
style.insertRule("p { color: black; }")

It’s also worth noting that another method called deleteRule()

exists, which deletes a certain block of CSS from a style sheet at a
certain index. For example, deleteRule(0) would delete the first
block of CSS found in a stylesheet.

Setting CSS Variables

It’s quite common to create CSS variables in a stylesheet, and therefore
it can be useful to change these CSS variables with your code. Since CSS
rules usually apply to the root of the document, this is a little tricky. A
useful property found on the document object which we can use for this
is document.documentElement. This object refers to the root of the
document – in other words, the <html> tag, and is similar to how we
can select the body of an HTML document using document.body.
Since the HTML tag itself is also an HTML element, we can add CSS
variables directly to it using a style method we have not covered before
– setProperty. We do it this way by adding the variables to the
HTML tag itself so that they are available at the root of the CSS
document for any other CSS to use.
Using setProperty on the document element, we can create CSS
variables, as is shown in the following example:

document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--my-
background-color', 'red')
document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--my-
text-color', 'white')

Getting CSS Properties and HTML Dimensions

In the previous section, we created a drag-and-drop <div> where we
got the current left and top CSS properties via the following code:

// Select the div we want to drag

let drag = document.getElementById("drag")
// getComputedStyle gets all CSS for an element
let dragCss = getComputedStyle(drag)
left dragLeft = dragCss.getPropertyValue("left")
let dragTop = dragCss.getPropertyValue("top")

To get CSS properties, we need to use getPropertValue and

getComputedStyle. That’s because while the style property on
HTMLElements lets us set the value of style properties, it does not let
us get them.
CSS properties like those mentioned earlier ultimately contribute to
the final position of an HTML element on the page. The position of an
element is also determined by its location inside the HTML document
and CSS properties like margin.
To get the specific position of an HTML element in pixels (using the
top left corner of the screen as the reference point), we have to use
another method that exists on all HTML elements called
getBoundingClientRect(). Using this, we can get properties like
the x or left position of a div from the left-hand side of the page.
This is illustrated in the following example:

// Select the div we want to drag

let drag = document.getElementById("drag")
let positionLeft =
drag.getBoundingClientRect().left

This means we can get the current location of any HTML element on
demand. The getBoundingClientRect() function can also be used
to get information on the top, left, bottom, right, x, y, width,
and height of any HTMLElement. In the following example, we are
able to get the width, x position, and bottom position of “drag”:

// Select the div we want to drag

let drag = document.getElementById("drag")
let positionX = drag.getBoundingClientRect().x
let positionBottom =
drag.getBoundingClientRect().bottom
let positionWidth =
drag.getBoundingClientRect().width
 This function comes in useful when building interactive web
experiences, where knowing the position of HTML elements can help
with things like drag and drop. For example, we might use this to check
if a user dropped an element on top of another, so that they could be
stacked together. A diagram of which coordinates
getBoundingClientRect() uses for each property can be seen in
Figure 8-14.

Figure 8-14 The getBoundingClientRect function is another powerful tool for getting
information on the current position of any HTML element

Summary
In this chapter, we’ve covered how to start working with HTML in
JavaScript. We’ve discussed how to select HTML elements using a
variety of different methods and then how to manipulate those
elements using some other HTML specific methods. We then covered
user events and how to track them so that you can do things when a
user interacts with your web page.
We’ve looked at the different wrapper objects assigned to HTML
elements and collections, like HTMLElement, Element,
HTMLCollection, and NodeList. We have also discussed how you
can find out more about the methods and properties available to you
via the console log by using
console.log(HTMLElement.prototype). You can also learn
more online about these prototypes and methods via websites like
developer.mozilla.org.
We’ve also learned how to create HTML elements programmatically
via JavaScript- and how to change CSS too. Finally, we’ve looked at how
you can find the location of any HTML element on a page using specific
HTML element methods.
This chapter has covered all of the basics which you’ll need to get
started, but there is so much more to learn beyond this. The best way to
learn is by experimentation! Using the examples we’ve covered in this
chapter, why not try building your own interactivity into web pages?
Try playing around in your web browser’s console, in your own
JavaScript files, or via online tools like jsfiddle.net. You can expand on
these examples quite easily. For instance, you could turn the drag-and-
drop example into a fully fledged whiteboard. As you start to explore
what’s possible, you’ll learn more and become even more familiar with
the concepts we’ve covered here.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_9

9. Maps and Sets

Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

While objects and arrays are the most common way of storing data
in JavaScript, they do have some limitations. For example, neither
objects nor arrays have the ability to create a unique list without
duplicates. Similarly, objects cannot contain keys that are not strings
or symbols. To overcome these challenges and more, two additional
special types of objects exist known as maps and sets. Both of these
have unique functionality, which makes them well-suited to certain
tasks. In this chapter, we’ll be diving into both of these objects and
when to use them.

Sets
Sets are mutable lists of values, which are quite similar to arrays. The
difference between sets and arrays is that sets cannot contain
duplicates. This makes them very performant for tasks where you need
to have a unique list. If you try to add a duplicate item to a set, it will
automatically be rejected without throwing an error.
Creating a set is relatively simple. All you need is the constructor,
Set(), and then special methods like add and remove to modify it:

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add(4)
mySet.add(4)
console.log(mySet) // Set(1) {4}

Note If you try to add duplicate values to a set, only one will be
added. Sets automatically reject duplicate values.

Sets will only support the addition of unique values for primitives, but
with objects, they use an object’s reference instead of its value. That
means it is possible to add two objects which have the same value but
have different references. This is shown in the following example:

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add({ "name" : "John" })
mySet.add({ "name" : "John" })

// Set(2) {{ "name" : "John" }, { "name" : "John"

}}
console.log(mySet)

Sets also handle equality in a slightly different way than we’ve

looked at so far. Sets will consider NaN to be equal to NaN even though
in previous examples we should that NaN === NaN and NaN == NaN
returns false. The reason why sets work this way is because they use
a slightly different equality algorithm. These equality algorithms are
summarized below:
The IsLooselyEqual equality algorithm is applied when we use
double equals (==) and matches on value.
The IsStrictlyEqual equality algorithm is applied when we use
triple equals (===) and matches on value/type.
The SameValueZero is used by sets. It considers both value and
type in equality like IsStrictlyEqual but also considers NaN to
be equal to NaN.
As such, if we try to add two NaNs to a set, the result is that only one
gets added:

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add(NaN)
mySet.add(NaN)

// Set(1) {NaN}
console.log(mySet)

Note Sets are really useful when you have an array where
duplicates are not allowed. It’s always possible for faulty code to let
duplicates into an array which should not have any, but sets ensure
that this will never happen.

Modifying Sets
Sets are mutable like other objects, and we mutate them via special
set methods. The three main methods for changing a set are:
Set.add() – To add an item to your set
Set.delete() – To delete an item from your set
Set.clear() – To clear all items from your set
In the following example, we utilize all three methods to create a set
that contains only the value 5 before clearing it to empty:

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add(4)
mySet.add(5)
mySet.delete(4)
console.log(mySet) // Set(1) {5}
mySet.clear()
console.log(mySet) // Set(0) {}

Checking Set Membership

Since the main use case of sets is to create unique lists, they become a
powerful tool for checking if a certain value exists in a specific set. Sets
have a built-in method called Set.has() to do this:

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add(4)
mySet.add(5)
mySet.delete(4)

let checkSet = mySet.has(4)

console.log(checkSet) // false

Checking Set Size

While in arrays we use Array.length to give us the size of an array,
sets instead use a property called size to achieve the same
functionality:

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add(4)
mySet.add(5)
mySet.add(6)
console.log(mySet.size) // Console logs 3

Merging Sets
Since sets are iterable and implement the iterator protocol, they can be
merged using the three dots operator (...), as shown in the following
example. Duplicates will automatically be removed if any exist. You can
see how this looks in Figure 9-1.

let mySetOne = new Set()

mySetOne.add(4)
mySetOne.add(5)
let mySetTwo = new Set()
mySetTwo.add(5)
let bigSet = new Set([...mySetOne, ...mySetTwo])
console.log(bigSet) // Set{2} {4, 5}
Figure 9-1 Sets can be merged using the three dots syntax since they are iterable. By doing so,
the new set will have all duplicates removed from it

Set Iteration and Values

Since sets are iterable, meaning they can be fed into for...of loops
as you would for arrays. However, using for...in loops will not work
since sets do not have indices. Since sets do not have indexes, it also
means you cannot access a set item with square bracket notation, like
mySet[2]:

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add(4)
mySet.add(5)
mySet.add(6)

for(let x of mySet) {
console.log(x) // 4, 5, 6
}

for(let x in mySet) {
console.log(x) // undefined
}

Just like arrays, sets also have a forEach method built in for easy
iteration. As we’ve previously discussed, for loops are generally faster
than using the forEach method, but they do have some advantages
over a for loop such as creating a new context, since they use callback
functions:
let mySet = new Set()
mySet.add(4)
mySet.add(5)
mySet.add(6)

mySet.forEach((x) => {
console.log(x) // 4, 5, 6
})

Finally, if the limitations on set methods or their lack of indices

become too much, you can easily convert a set to an array instead by
using Array.from(). After that, you’ll be able to use all array
methods on your set:

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add(4)
mySet.add(5)
mySet.add(6)

let arrayFromSet = Array.from(mySet) // [ 4, 5, 6

]

Set Keys and Values

Just like objects, sets inherit keys(), values(), and entries()
methods. In sets, both keys() and values() do the same thing and
will simply return a list of all members in the set as a special object
known as a SetIterator:

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add(5)
mySet.add(10)
let getKeys = mySet.keys() // SetIterator{5, 10}

SetIterators are different from sets, and they only have one
method, that being the method next(). The next() method allows
you to iterate through sets one item at a time. Each time you do, an
object is returned consisting of the value of the set item and whether
iteration is complete. You can see what that looks like in the following
example:

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add(5)
mySet.add(10)
let getKeys = mySet.keys() // SetIterator{5, 10}
console.log(getKeys.next()) // { value: 5, done:
false }
console.log(getKeys.next()) // { value: 10, done:
false }
console.log(getKeys.next()) // { value: undefined,
done: false }

While keys() and values() provide a shorthand way to generate

SetIterators, they can also be created by referring to the sets
iterator property instead to achieve the same result:

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add(5)
mySet.add(10)
let getKeys = mySet[Symbol.iterator]() //
SetIterator{5, 10}
console.log(getKeys.next()) // { value: 5, done:
false }
console.log(getKeys.next()) // { value: 10, done:
false }
console.log(getKeys.next()) // { value: undefined,
done: false }

Note You can also iterate through SetIterators using a for…of

loop as they are iterable.

The entries() method is also available to all sets. On objects, the

entries method returns arrays in the form [key, value]. Since sets
do not have keys, the value is returned as both the key and the value.
 The main reason why this method is available in sets is to ensure
consistency with maps, which do have keys and values.
Set.entries() still returns a SetIterator, just like keys() and
values():

let mySet = new Set()

mySet.add(5)
mySet.add(10)
let setEntries = mySet.entries()

for(let x of setEntries) {
console.log(x)
// Returns [ 5, 5 ], [ 10, 10 ]
}

Maps
While sets are array-like structures that also provide automatic
duplicate removal, maps are object-like structures with some additional
enhancements. While similar to objects, they also differ in some very
important ways:
Maps have no prototype – While map objects do inherit a prototype,
the map itself contains no keys unless we insert one into it. In
JavaScript objects, we have to use Object.hasOwnProperty() to
find out if a property is from the object itself or its prototype. Maps
do not search the prototype, meaning we know maps will only have
what we explicitly put into them, and will not inherit other
properties.
Maps guarantee order by chronology – They are guaranteed to be
ordered by the order they were inserted. Since maps use a specific
set() method to create new entries, the order of entries
corresponds chronologically to when set() was used.
Maps allow anything to be set as a key – The keys of a map can be
anything, including a Function or even an Object. In objects, it
must be a string or symbol.
 Maps have performance benefits – They have better performance
than objects on tasks that require rapid or frequent
removal/addition of data.
Maps are iterable by default, unlike objects.
Similar to with sets, a map is initiated using the new Map()
constructor:

let myMap = new Map()

And just like sets, maps come with add(), delete(), and
clear() methods. The key difference here is that to add map items,
you need to specify both a key and a value and to delete a map item, you
have to specify the key name you wish to delete. You can see how these
methods work in the following example and in Figure 9-2.

let myMap = new Map()

myMap.set("key", "value")
myMap.set("secondKey", "value")
myMap.delete("key")
console.log(myMap) // Map(1) {'secondKey' =>
'value'}
myMap.clear()
console.log(myMap) // Map(0) {}

Figure 9-2 Adding an entry to the Map using square bracket notation adds it to the object, at
the same level as the prototype. It does not add an entry to the map itself, meaning you lose all
the benefits of Maps
 Since it is not possible to set one key before another with set(),
maps order is reliably assumed to be chronological.
Somewhat confusingly, maps seem to be able to have items set using
the square bracket notation, but this is not the right way to set new
map entries. In fact, setting a property on a map using square brackets
results in the property being defined on the map object, and not in the
map itself:

let myMap = new Map()

myMap.set("hello", "world")
myMap[0] = "hello"

console.log(myMap)

The separation between map entries set with the square bracket
notation and the object containing the map is why maps do not
inherit properties from a prototype. You can see this separation in
Figure 9-3, where an [[Entries]] section exists to contain actual
map entries, while the prototype and other properties are set on the
map object itself.
Figure 9-3 Maps do not inherit a prototype since their properties are contained in a special
property called [[Entries]]. Trying to set a property on the map itself with square brackets
will not work since the property will be set in the map object

While objects only allow strings, numbers, or symbols to be set as

keys, maps allow keys to be of any type. As such, a function key is
possible in maps while impossible in objects:

let myMap = new Map()

myMap.set(() => { return true }, "value")
console.log(myMap) // Map(1) {{ƒ => 'value'}}

Retrieving Map Properties

To retrieve items from a map, we use a method called get():

let myMap = new Map()

myMap.set("key", "value")
myMap.set("secondKey", "value")

console.log(myMap.get("key"))

Since maps do not inherit prototypes, we do not run into key

conflicts. For example, objects will typically inherit keys like
valueOf() from their prototype. That means that we can use this
method on any object, as is shown in the following example:

let myObject = { "key" : "value" }

myObject.valueOf() // Returns value of myObject

With maps, these methods are not inherited and thus will not exist.
This prevents any chance of key conflict.

let myMap = new Map()

myMap.set("key", "value")
myMap.set("secondKey", "value")
console.log(myMap.get("myValue")) // undefined

Since maps can have keys of any type, retrieving nonprimitive keys
can become a little tricky. To do that, we must mention the original
reference to the key, meaning we need to store the key in a variable to
reliably retrieve it. You can see how that works in the following
example:

let myMap = new Map()

let someArray = [ 1, 2 ]
myMap.set(someArray, "value")

To retrieve the someArray entry, we reference the variable,

someArray:

myMap.get(someArray) // value

The functionality that allows us to set map keys to any value leads
to some interesting problems. Since the map holds a reference to the
object, someArray, someArray will never be garbage collected.
Normally, when objects become unreferenced, JavaScript will
automatically remove them from memory.
This means that if you do what we did in the preceding example
enough, you might run into memory issues, and ultimately memory
errors in your code.
To overcome that particular problem, another type of map called a
WeakMap exists. WeakMaps have a more limited set of methods (get,
set, has, and delete) but will allow for garbage collection of objects
where the only reference to that object is in the WeakMap. WeakMaps
are not iterable, meaning accessing them relies solely on get(). This
makes them much more limited than maps but useful when solving this
particular problem. You can create a WeakMap in the same way as a
map, but by using the WeakMap constructor instead:

let myMap = new WeakMap()

let someArray = [ 1, 2 ]
myMap.set(someArray, "value")

Checking for Key Existence on a Map

We can check for a key’s membership on a map using the has()
method:
let myMap = new Map()
myMap.set('firstKey', 'someValue')
myMap.has('firstKey') // true

Telling How Big a Javascript Map Is

Just like in sets, maps use the size property rather than length to get the
number of keys that exist within them:

let myMap = new Map()

myMap.set('firstKey', 'someValue')
myMap.size // 1

This is actually an improvement upon objects. Since objects don’t

have a length by default, we typically use a mixture of
Object.keys() to convert them to arrays in order to find their size:

let myObj = { "name" : "John" };

let sizeOfObj = Object.keys(myObj).length; // 1
Using Maps with non-string keys

Iterating, Merging, and Accessing Maps

Another useful feature of maps is the fact that they are iterable by
default. Firstly, that means they can be merged using the three dots
operator (...), as shown in the following example:

let myMapOne = new Map()

myMapOne.set("key", "value")
let myMapTwo = new Map()
myMapTwo.set("secondKey", "value")
// Map{2} {4, 5}
let bigMap = new Map([...myMapOne, ...myMapTwo])
console.log(bigMap) // Map(2) {'key' => 'value',
'secondKey' => 'value'}

This is very different from objects, where we typically need to use

Object.keys(), Object.entries(), or Object.values() to
iterate through them
let myObject = { "item-1": false, "item-2": true,
"item-3": false }
let getKeys = Object.keys(myObject)
for(let item of getKeys) {
console.log(myObject[item])
}

With maps, things are simpler. We can iterate straight on the map
itself. When we do this with a for...of loop, this returns a handy
key–value array item. We also have the option of using the built-in
forEach method:

let myMap = new Map()

myMap.set("key", "value")
myMap.set("secondKey", "value")

for(let item of myMap) {

console.log(item) // [ 'key', 'value' ], [
'secondKey', 'value' ]
console.log(item[1]) // 'value', 'value'
}

myMap.forEach((x) => {
console.log(x) // 'value', 'value'
})

Keys and Values in Maps

Maps also have keys(), values(), and entries() methods. All of
these methods return a special type of object known as MapIterator.
This is essentially the same as when we looked at sets, which returned
a SetIterator for these methods.
Since object keys can only be symbols, numbers, or strings, usually
we only use the key for accessing object values. However, in maps, keys
can be of any type, so the keys() method takes on a more useful role
in giving us the key value, which can actually be something useful like a
function.
let myMap = new Map()
myMap.set("key", "value")
myMap.set("secondKey", "value")

let mapKeys = myMap.keys()

console.log(mapKeys.next()) // {value: 'key',
done: false}
console.log(mapKeys.next()) // {value:
'secondKey', done: false}
console.log(mapKeys.next()) // {value: undefined,
done: true}

Note MapIterators remain iterable, so you can use a for...of loop

on them too.

The same functionality we have shown above for keys can be achieved
for values too, using Map.values():

let myMap = new Map()

myMap.set("key", "value")
myMap.set("secondKey", "value")

let mapValues = myMap.values()

console.log(mapValues.next()) // {value: "value",
done: false}
console.log(mapValues.next()) // {value: "value",
done: false}
console.log(mapValues.next()) // {value:
undefined, done: true}

Finally, we can retrieve both key and value in this format by using
Map.entries(). It returns each key–value pair as [ key, value
]:

let myMap = new Map()

myMap.set("key", "value")
myMap.set("secondKey", "value")
let mapValues = myMap.entries()
console.log(mapValues.next()) // {value: [ "key",
"value" ], done: false}
console.log(mapValues.next()) // {value: [
"secondKey", "value" ], done: false}
console.log(mapValues.next()) // {value:
undefined, done: true}

Serialization of Maps in JavaScript

When we want to serialize a JavaScript object, we use JSON.parse()
and JSON.stringify(). Since maps are empty objects with entries
within them, trying to stringify them results in an empty object string:

let myMap = new Map()

myMap.set("key", "value")
myMap.set("secondKey", "value")

console.log(JSON.stringify(myMap)) // "{}"

The only way to serialize a map for transfer over an API is to convert
it to an object or array. To do that, we can use Array.from() to
convert our map to an array and then use JSON.stringify() to
serialize it:

let myMap = new Map()

myMap.set("key", "value")
myMap.set("secondKey", "value")
myMap.set("thirdKey", "value")

let objConversion = Array.from(myMap)

// Returns [["some","value"],
["someOther","value"],["aFinal","value"]]
console.log(JSON.stringify(objConversion))

To change it back to a map, we can then use JSON.parse() in

conjunction with new Map(). In this case, an array of entries passed
into the map constructor will result in a fully formed map object:
let myMap = new Map()
myMap.set("key", "value")
myMap.set("secondKey", "value")
myMap.set("thirdKey", "value")

let objConversion =
JSON.stringify(Array.from(myMap))
// Returns [["some","value"],
["someOther","value"],["aFinal","value"]]
console.log(objConversion)

let toObj = JSON.parse(objConversion)

let toMap = new Map(toObj)
// Map(3) {'key' => 'value', 'secondKey' =>
'value', 'thirdKey' => 'value'}
console.log(toMap)

Summary
In this chapter, we’ve covered sets and maps. We’ve gone over the
utility of both and when you would use them over regular objects. Sets
allow for unique lists, while maps have lots of extra utility that objects
simply do not.
Up until this point, we’ve been relying entirely on objects and arrays
to handle our data. Now you can be more specific and create sets and
maps when the need arises too. Since these objects are optimized for
the tasks we’ve described in this chapter, they can also provide
additional optimization to your code.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_10

10. Fetching Data, APIs, and Promises

Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

Throughout this book, we’ve made reference to APIs, but we haven’t

gone into detail about how they work. To put it simply, an API is a way
for us to request and receive information from a computation process
happening outside of your current application. This includes other
computers and servers. API, which stands for application programming
interface, provide a standard mechanism for sending and receiving this
interaction. If you want to create things like login pages, user accounts,
or persistent user data on the web, we usually use APIs. The reason we
have to use something like an API for these things is because front end
JavaScript is local to a user’s computer, whereas SQL databases
containing a user’s email or password are usually stored on a server.
Therefore it would be next to impossible to process all of this
information on a front end JavaScript application in someone’s browser
due to security problems.
In this chapter, we’ll cover how APIs work in JavaScript and go into
detail about how best to utilize them. We’ll also look at how to use the
fetch() function, along with the associated Promise type, and learn
about asynchronicity.

What Are APIs?

In simple terms, APIs provide a way to abstract complicated
computation into simple calls we can process anywhere in our code.
For example, imagine you want to build a piece of software which takes
image data and then tells you which items exist in that image. Usually,
the image processing part would be done through some kind of
machine learning, while the image data may be uploaded via a web
interface.
While implementing a way to upload images is relatively straight
forward in front end JavaScript, adding in machine learning to process
these uploaded images is a little more complex. Furthermore, doing this
all on the front end would probably not be practical. For one, you
probably don’t want users to have to download this potentially quite
complicated piece of software every time they visit your website, and
secondly you might also want to write it in another language like
Python. Furthermore, you may lack the knowledge to create this
machine learning software effectively.
To solve these problems, it’s usually preferable to create this piece
of software on a server somewhere instead. We can then open up
access to this software via API, allowing anyone to send image data to
the server and receive back an array of items that exist in any given
image. This approach to software development has two major
advantages:
The API can be maintained by someone who knows a lot about
Python and machine learning. This means the quality of the code
could be a lot higher than if everyone built their own machine
learning algorithms.
Even though the API is written in Python, as long as the response is
sent via HTTP, it can still be interacted with from JavaScript.
In front end JavaScript development, we depend on back end APIs
to enhance functionality and build more advanced capabilities into our
websites, like login and registration systems. These back end APIs are
often written in JavaScript too, but that’s not always the case! All APIs
on the Web are sent via HTTP, which is the same protocol you use to
open any website in your browser. HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer
Protocol, and it’s why URLs start with http:// or https://.

Note Sometimes, APIs don’t just create an interface between two

computers. Instead, they can create interfaces between your
JavaScript code and your operating system. These are Web APIs.
We’ll go into these APIs in much more detail in the next chapter.
APIs on the Web commonly follow a set of design principles known as
REST, so you may see these APIs referred to as REST APIs. REST stands
for representational state transfer and refers to APIs implementing
the following principles:
They use HTTP to communicate between different computers (i.e.,
server and web page).
They are stateless, meaning any API call with the same request will
produce the same result.
They are based around resources or things. For example: an article on
a website is a resource, which we then do something with. For
example, we can get an article, update the article, or delete the
article.
They are language agnostic, so our example Python API should still
work even if the API request comes from JavaScript.
A simple representation of how APIs work can be found in Figure
10-1.

Figure 10-1 APIs allow for communication between servers and web pages. Sometimes, APIs
may be built into the browser and allow communication between the operating system and a
web page, such as with Web APIs

Understanding HTTP
Before we dig into the practicalities of creating APIs in JavaScript, let’s
learn more about HTTP. HTTP, and more commonly HTTPS, the S
standing for secure, is the standard protocol for loading web pages on
the Internet.
You can find out a little more about HTTP if you open your
browser’s console Network tab and then open any web page. This
section will become populated with a lot of entries naming the things
that this web page has loaded via HTTP. If you click one, you’ll see
something similar to Figure 10-2.

Figure 10-2 Web pages are loaded via HTTP GET requests

When connecting to a website via a browser, the browser sends an

HTTP request to a domain, which ultimately points to the IP of a server
or computer somewhere. A website may request more HTTP resources
to load images, JavaScript files, and CSS files.
An HTTP request is ultimately a string of text, which your browser
transmits to another computer. In typical terminology, we refer to the
computer sending the request as the client and the computer receiving
the request as the server. In the example shown in Figure 10-2, we are
trying to connect to fjolt.com which points to a server with the IP
109.228.53.122:433.
For HTTP to work, the server needs to be configured correctly to
receive HTTP requests. This can be done by setting up an Apache or
Node.JS web server. If that is done correctly, then the HTTP server
interprets the HTTP request and sends back a response to the client
computer.
With APIs, we can tell the server to do certain things whenever
someone tries to go to a specific URL on that server. These different
URLs, in the context of APIs, are commonly referred to as routes or
endpoints.
In summary, all HTTP requests and therefore all APIs have two
parts:
The request, which contains the string of information from you,
your browser, or your code, about what you want from the server.
The response, which contains the reply from the server.
To expose how simple an HTTP request can be, here is the HTTP
request for a made-up website called some-website.org, from a
browser with the user agent Mozilla/5.0. User agent here refers to
the unique string which identifies each browser. In simple terms, all
this is doing is creating a request with some specific instructions which
a server will then interpret. If the server is set up to accept HTTP
requests, it will send a response:

GET /page HTTP/1.1

Host: some-website.org
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0
Connection: Keep-Alive

Note To get your own IP and domain, you have to use a web host. A
web host will usually give you a server with a specific IP and a
domain. There are plenty of options for this available online. You can
then host .html, .css and .js files directly on this web server or
use it as a location to spin up a Node.JS web server instead.

RESTful Design
Earlier, we described how most APIs are based around RESTful design
principles. APIs are also usually designed to request specific resources.
In the context of APIs, a resource could refer to anything. For example,
in the context of web development, this could refer to an image, article,
category of content, or comment on an article.
These concepts also extend to navigation on the web itself,
where the web page itself is the resource, and the browser performs a
request to retrieve its contents. Each time an HTTP request is sent, it
comes with a specific action keyword. For example, opening a web page
performs the GET HTTP method.
Each of these actions come with expected behaviour. For
example, when using GET, the expected behavior is that the server will
return a resource. For web pages, this could mean returning HTML, but
it’s also pretty common for a web page URL to return XML or JSON too.
GET is not the only type of HTTP request we can send, though. The
other methods are shown below:
GET – Meant for getting a resource
POST – Generally meant for creating a new resource
PUT – Meant for replacing entire resources or major parts of
resources
PATCH – Meant for modifying small parts of a resource
DELETE – Meant for deleting resources
CONNECT – Meant for initial connection to the URL or IP. Usually
used when there is encryption or authentication required
TRACE – Meant for looping back the response as the request, for
testing purposes
While a web page (or resource) is normally retrieved via a
GET request, using DELETE on it instead will usually result in the
resource being deleted instead. We usually add authentication to these
more dangerous methods so that users can’t randomly delete important
content.

Note In the context of API design, you may see the acronym CRUD.
This stands for Create, Read, Update, Delete, which are the actions a
RESTful API may perform on a resource. These actions are
implemented via POST, GET, PUT/PATCH, and DELETE,
respectively.

In summary, when we open a web page, what’s really happening is the

browser is sending a GET HTTP request to a server, and the server is
sending back the web page as a response. If it’s a normal web page,
the response body will contain the HTML, JavaScript, and CSS for that
website. Some URLs may return other data types like JSON or XML
instead. Your browser then loads that into its viewport, and that’s what
you see.
If you could change how your web browser worked so that it always
sent POST requests instead of GET, the web would look very different.
Trying to access Google, for example, would throw a 405 error. For
other websites, you might receive other responses, or you might end up
posting and creating new data on a server somewhere instead! That’s
because although you are visiting the same websites, each HTTP
method is configured to act differently. Therefore, the HTTP method we
use is important when using APIs and navigating the web.

Understanding APIs Through a Node.JS Web Server

Now that we’ve explored HTTP in a little bit of depth, let’s look at the
practicalities around how APIs work. To understand how this works
fully, we’re going to have to get a little familiar with Node.js, and how it
can be used to create a web server.
Node.js is an implementation of JavaScript which works mostly in
the same way browser JavaScript does, except Node.js applications run
on servers or directly on computers. It is common in Node.js to import
libraries of software from an online repository of projects called
npmjs.org in order to provide additional functionality to our own
code.

Note A web server is created on a specific port. It waits for

connections to hit a specific URL or endpoint with an HTTP request
and then responds to the person, browser, or computer initiating the
connection (the client) before sending a response back.

To start to understand how APIs work, let’s create a Node.js web server.
Before you begin, make sure to install Node.js from nodejs.org. This will
also include access to npmjs.org and the npm terminal tools. For the
purposes of this exercise, you can make a new folder anywhere on your
computer and call it “node-server.”
Start by creating a file called app.js in that folder with the
following content:
const express = require("express")
const http = require("http")

let app = express()

let server = http.createServer(app)

app.get("/some/url", (request, response) => {

// Do Something
response.send("Hello World")
})

app.post("/some/url", (request, response) => {

// Do Something
response.send("Goodbye World")
})

server.listen(3000)

Let’s explore what is going on here. In this example, we import two

libraries called http and express using a built-in Node.js global
function called require(). This function searches for a folder called
node_modules in the same directory as your file and then loads the
appropriate third party module into your code. Both of these libraries
contain specific code which will let us create a web server.
The http library lets us make the HTTP server itself, which is what
we’ll need to create an API. Meanwhile, the express library lets us
configure endpoints (or URLs) on that server, so that we have URLs to
connect to. How these libraries work under the hood is not super
important, but since the code for these libraries is open source, you can
explore that in your own time online or in the node_modules folder.
The http library, for example, can be found at
npmjs.com/package/http.
Importing these libraries into our code is not enough to make them
work. We also need to install them. To do that, navigate to your node-
server folder (using cd node-server from terminal), and then run
the following two commands to install express and http. You can see
how this works in Figure 10-3.

npm i http
npm i express

Note require() is a Node.JS global method. A standardized

alternative called import is also available in Node.JS but requires
you to convert your Node.JS project to a “module.” This is easily
achieved by either updating the package.json by adding "type":
"module" at the top level or by using the .mjs file extension
instead of .js.

Figure 10-3 Once Node.JS is installed, you can use terminal to install dependencies via the
npm command

Now that we’ve installed our packages, let’s look at the rest of the
code found in app.js. First, we use express to create the
available URLs on the web server:

app.get("/some/url", (request, response) => {

app.get("/some/url"..., can be summarized as saying

that when someone tries to GET "/some/url" on this server,
then Node.js should run a specific callback function. In this case, the
callback function generates a response saying “Hello World”:

app.get("/some/url", (request, response) => {

// Do Something
response.send("Hello World")
})

In the callback function body which we define in this request, we

have access to both the request sent by the user (along with all the
HTTP request details that the client sends to us) and also the
response, which we can use to send something back to the client via
the response.send() method. If the user navigates to
“/some/url” on this server, then the response they receive will be
whatever we define in this send function.
If we plan to send HTML to the user, we can change our response to
do that. This is used in something known as server-side rendering
(SSR), which is a very efficient way to serve HTML to users. Sending
HTML files can be done with the sendFile method in express, as
shown in the following example, where we send a file called
“index.html”:

app.get("/some/url", (request, response) => {

// Do Something
response.sendFile("./index.html", { root:
__dirname })
})

In app.js, we have also configured a POST request, which sends a

response to the user if they try to post to the same URL (“/some/url”).
This time, it sends “Goodbye World” as a response:

app.post("/some/url", (request, response) => {

// Do Something
response.send("Goodbye World")
})
 Express supports all of the HTTP methods we described earlier, and
while we’ve only sent responses here, we could also configure these
endpoints to do something else with the request data, like store it in a
database.

Note It’s relatively common for a server to store data it receives via
a POST API request. For example, there are Node.JS packages for
MySQL and MongoDB which allow you to save data sent to the server
in the server’s database. You could also store user data from a
registration form, letting you create login systems.

To finish app.js, we attach these endpoints to the HTTP server we plan

to set up. To do that we use two lines of code - one which creates the
server from the express app and another which listens on port 3000 for
connections:

let server = http.createServer(app)

// ...
server.listen(3000)

Once our file is complete, we can run it by using the terminal or

command line. To do that, we use a command called node. If you saved
this file as app.js, then the following line of code in the terminal will
start your web server:

node app.js

Most computers have localhost set up to point to their local IP

(127.0.0.1). If that’s the case for your computer, going to
localhost:3000/some/url in your browser should bring up the
Node.js server we just set up. Since our server was set up to send “Hello
World” when using the GET command on this URL, you should see the
text “Hello World” in your browser. If localhost is not set up on your
computer, you may have to navigate to
127.0.0.1:3000/some/url instead.
 Note When running node app.js, the app.js file will only run as
long as the terminal session persists. To ensure a web server
continuously runs for as long as the computer or server is switched
on, it’s pretty common to install a production command instead. One
commonly used production command is pm2. You can install it by
running npm install pm2 -g and then permanently start up
your web server by running pm2 start app.js.

Testing Endpoints with Postman

Now that we have a server running in the background, we’ll want to be
able to easily access the endpoints we’ve set up on it. This is
particularly useful when we want to test code. A useful tool for testing
web servers like this is Postman. You can download it via
postman.com. Postman lets you use any HTTP method to request
certain endpoints/URLs. It also has useful tools for authentication
should your APIs implement that. You can see what Postman looks like
in Figure 10-4.
Figure 10-4 Postman lets you test out any endpoint responses from any public URL. When our
web server is running on port 3000, it lets us easily test responses from it

The Benefits of APIs

APIs can be called from anywhere in JavaScript as is illustrated in
Figure 10-5. They can be called as soon as the page loads, but more
commonly they are triggered when the user does something. For
example, if a user clicks “Login,” an API could send their login
credentials for verification to the server. This user-facilitated API call
can be done via .addEventListener(), which we covered in a
previous chapter.
Figure 10-5 APIs can be interacted with from anywhere, but in web development, the requests
are usually sent from the front end to the back end via a JavaScript method called fetch.
Requests and responses usually take the form of JSON

Using APIs in your applications has two major benefits which we

haven’t discussed yet:
The server takes on the computation load – While this is not a big
deal for things like user login, it can become more important for
complex computation. For example, imagine if the server was a
supercomputer, which could tell you the weather at any pinpoint
location. On a user’s computer, such a calculation may be impossible,
but the supercomputer can do this for us and then send us the
response via API.
It allows us to build microservices – Using APIs, we can create
reusable code based on RESTful principles. We can deploy these APIs
independently of the rest of our code, allowing us to version control
specific functionality. For example, we could have separate APIs for
login, registration, status updates, and so on.
This is not the only way servers and APIs can be used in web
development. Since web browsers trigger a GET HTTP request to any
URL or endpoint you visit, some servers are configured to serve entire
web pages to the user. For example, configuring the endpoint GET
/home on a Node.js server could send a response to the user where the
response is the HTML for the home page.
Sending Data to APIs with JSON
When we send data to APIs in JavaScript, it’s usually sent in the form of
JSON, which stands for JavaScript Object Notation.
A JSON object, for the most part, just looks like a regular JavaScript
object. An example of one is shown below:

{
"name" : "John",
"age" : 105,
"interests" : [ "hiking", "skiing", "working"
]
}

To work with JSON, a top-level global object called JSON exists. This
contains two static methods for managing JSON:
JSON.stringify() for serializing JSON into a string (i.e. turning a
JSON object into a string).
JSON.parse() for turning a string consisting of JSON back into a
functioning JSON object.
When sending data to an endpoint (e.g., if we want to POST data to a
Node.js web server), we usually send it as stringified JSON:

JSON.stringify({
"name" : "John",
"age" : 105,
"interests" : [ "hiking", "skiing", "working"
]
})

/*
This will return a string:
'{"name":"John","age":105,"interests":
["hiking","skiing","working"]}'
*/

To turn this back into a JavaScript object, we use JSON.parse():

JSON.parse('{"name":"John","age":105,"interests":
["hiking","skiing","working"]}')

/* This will return an object:

{
"name" : "John",
"age" : 105,
"interests" : [ "hiking", "skiing", "working"
]
}
*/

These methods are typically used before we send data to an API and
then when we receive it. For example, before we send JSON data to an
endpoint on a server, we would typically stringify it. Then, on the server
side, we’d parse it to get the JavaScript JSON object back again.
While JSON can be considered almost identical to any normal
JavaScript object, there are some differences. When you try to stringify
or parse an object into JSON, you will encounter these limitations:
undefined, Function, and Symbol do not work in JSON. These
properties will disappear when using JSON.stringify or
JSON.parse.
Maps or sets (two data types we’ll cover in a later chapter) are
parsed to {} in JSON.
Dates are parsed to strings since Date has a .toJSON method.
Infinity, NaN, and null are all considered null.

The fetch Function

So far, we’ve only looked at how we can set up an API server. Now that
we’ve covered how APIs work and why we use them, let’s look at how
we can create API connections in JavaScript. The fetch() method is
the function we use on the front end to send requests to a server. It
exists on the global window object, so running fetch() at the top
level by itself will work. At its simplest, fetch will hit a URL with a
GET HTTP request and then wait for a response from the server. This is
best illustrated by the following example:

fetch("https://google.com").then((res) => {
// Do something with response
})

As we discussed earlier, when we request a URL, a response is sent

back. Using the fetch function, we initiate a request, which then
generates a response. The response (or res), can only be accessed
inside then() in this example. You might be wondering why we have
to use then() along with the fetch function, and that’s a good
question!
The reason why is simple. When we try to request a URL, it takes
some time for the URL to load, run the server code it needs to, and then
send a response back to us. Since JavaScript works via the stack, the
fetch function will be run, but JavaScript will just move on to the next
item in the stack and never wait for a response.
For this reason, the fetch function returns a special type of data
which is known as a Promise. It’s called that because fetch() is
promising to us that a response will eventually be generated. When we
use then(), it waits for the promise to generate a response. When it
does, it will run the code inside the then() function’s body. The
response from the Promise is stored in the res variable. In the
previous example, we used then() on a fetch request, but it can
actually be used on any Promise.
If you try to console log the res variable, you’ll eventually get the
response object containing data about the response from the server.
The res.body property contains the main body of the response sent
by the server, while res contains other details about the response. The
response is of type ReadableStream, which is the standard
transferable object type in JavaScript.
In this ReadableStream form, it’s not very useful to us, so to
convert our response into usable data, we have five methods attached
to every HTTP response:
 res.text() – Takes the HTTP response body and returns the text
content of its response. If it’s a website, for example, it returns the
HTML.
res.json() – Takes the HTTP response body and returns
formatted JSON data if it exists.
res.blob() – Takes the HTTP response body and returns
formatted blob data (usually binary data for an image or video) if any
exists.
res.arrayBuffer() – Takes the HTTP response body and returns
a formatted arrayBuffer, if one exists.
res.formData() – Takes the HTTP response body and returns
formData, if any exists.
To illustrate this, imagine our API returns HTML data. We can use
res.text() to change our body from a ReadableStream to actual,
usable HTML:

fetch("https://google.com").then((res) => {
// this parses the response as text
return res.text()
}).then((data) => {
// we can now access the raw HTML of the web
page via data
})

In a similar vein, if our URL returns JSON, res.json() gives us the

JSON object which we can parse as a regular JavaScript object:

fetch("http://localhost:3000/some/api").then((res)
=> {
// when fetch is received, jsonObject will
become the parsed JSON version of the response.
return res.json()
}).then((data) => {
// Once received and parsed, we can now access
our response as JSON.
let jsonData = data
})

In summary, we can request any URL or API using the fetch function
in JavaScript. This function returns a special type of data known as a
“promise”. We can wait for a promise to resolve into a response by using
a function called “then”. Now that we understand these basics, let’s look
at how we can customize our fetch requests.

A Deep Dive into Fetch Options

So far, we’ve described how HTTP requests can be configured to have
different HTTP methods, like GET and POST. HTTP requests can be
further configured with other settings and headers, which allow us to
modify how the request is sent.
When you are sending HTTP requests, you’ll find that most use
cases only require the properties body, method, and headers. In the
following section, we’ll discuss all of the different properties which are
available to you in the “fetch” function. Some of these are quite
complicated, and if you’re starting out it’s not necessary to understand
them all in graphic detail. In most scenarios, you’ll really only want to
send data (e.g. the “body”), via some HTTP method (e.g. the “method”).
To illustrate all of the properties at your disposal, here is an
example of a fetch function with all possible options configured:

fetch("https://google.com/", {
body: JSON.stringify({ someData: "value" })
mode: 'cors',
method: 'POST',
cache: 'no-cache',
credentials: 'same-origin',
referrer: 'some-site.com',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
},
redirect: 'follow',
integrity: 'sha512-12345',
keepalive: false,
referrerPolicy: 'no-referrer'
});

A description of each can be found in the following section.

body
The body property is the main data you send to the web server. For
example, we might send a stringified JSON object to the server via the
body. Then, on the server, the body is parsed in order to do some
calculations with it. In the previous example, we saw how we
could send data via the fetch function in the body property. You can see
what the corresponding server code might look like in the following
example:

// Note: we use an express middleware here, called

// express.json(). It automatically parses all
request bodies
// as JSON so we don’t have to.
app.post("/some/url", express.json(), (request,
response) => {
let generateResponse = `You sent:
${request.body?.someData}`
response.send(generateResponse)
})

mode
This property is used for configuring how cross-origin requests are
handled. The possible options for this property are cors, no-cors,
same-origin, navigate or websocket. Ultimately, this property
will determine if cross-origin requests (i.e., requests between two
different domains) are successful. If you try to send a request to a
different domain (e.g., you are on localhost, and try to send a request to
google.com), then you will get an error unless you set this to no-cors.

method
We have already discussed HTTP methods throughout this chapter. This
property is where you can set the HTTP method you want to use. It can
be set to POST, GET, DELETE, PUT, CONNECT, PATCH, TRACE or
OPTION.
On the server, we can configure HTTP methods as well. In the
following example, we configure a “put” method function:

app.put("/some/url", (request, response) => {})

cache
This property handles how caching works for this fetch request. It can
be set to default, no-cache, reload, force-cache or only-if-
cached. When you make an HTTP request, it is cached and reused to
save time. By changing this setting to force-cache or another setting,
you can change the default behavior so that the cache is never used.

credentials
Especially when configuring login systems, it is possible that the server
will send a cookie back to you to store a session. Cookies are sensitive
information, so it is useful to have a property which configures if the
cookies are visible on the response. By changing this to include, the
cookie will be saved. The possible values for this property are
include, same-origin or omit.

headers
Headers are additional data points about the HTTP request which can
tell the server to do specific things. Some headers are standard, and
servers will interpret them in a specific way – like Cache-Control or
Expires. which control aspects of caching. Other headers are custom.
You can make any header you like, and it can add additional context
about the kind of request you are trying to send.

redirect
This property determines what happens if the fetched URL redirects.
It can be set to follow, error or manual.
follow is the default value, and error will result in an HTTP error
code. if you use manual, it will result in the HTTP response having a
property called “type” which will be set to
opaqueredirect, (res.type = “opaqueredirect”), allowing you to
manually process what should happen on the client side.

referrer
When you send a request, the response will have a referrer header. By
default, the referrer header is the URL you sent the request from. You
can set a custom referrer via this property, as long as it’s on the same
domain as the fetch request. You can also set it as a blank string to show
nothing.

referrerPolicy
Since the referrer is the URL you sent the request from, it can
sometimes make sense to hide this information for security reasons.
The referrerPolicy determines how much referrer information is
passed with the request. Usually, you won’t need to use this, but if you
want to remove the referrer from the response for security reasons,
this can be quite useful.
It can be set to one of the following:
no-referrer – No referrer is sent.
no-referrer-when-downgrade – No referrer is sent if you are
sending from HTTPS to HTTP.
origin – Only sends the domain, and not the URL, that is, some-
site.com instead of some-site.com/some/page.
origin-when-cross-origin – Only sends the domain if the
request is cross-origin (different domains).
same-origin – Only send the referrer if on the same domain.
strict-origin – Sends only the origin for HTTPS to HTTP
requests and the whole thing for HTTPS to HTTPS requests.
strict-origin-when-cross-origin – Sends only the origin
when HTTPS to HTTP requests or when cross-origin. Otherwise, it
sends the referrer.
unsafe-url – Always sends the referrer even if it’s HTTPs to HTTP.

integrity
This special property is used to validate a subresource integrity (SRI).
For example, a URL can be given a SRI value, which conforms to some
cryptographic standard like SHA-256, SHA-384, or SHA-512. When we
request it via fetch, we can set integrity to the expected SRI value for
the resource we are requesting. If they match, it works. If it does not,
then you’ll get an error instead.
As an example, if you knew that the resource had an SRI value of
12345, and it had been encrypted with SHA-512, you would set
integrity like so:

{ integrity: 'sha512-12345' }

keepalive
When you close a page, all requests are automatically aborted.
Sometimes, this is not helpful. For example, if we were making an
analytics tool that recorded precisely how long a page was open for,
we’d never get that data back to the server. By setting keepalive, we can
create a fetch request that will outlive the page’s life cycle. The major
limitation to this is you will not be able to process the response, and
you can only fetch up to 64kb.
In summary, a fetch request can either be quite simple
(requesting a single page via GET), or it can be made quite complicated
with additional options. Not all of these options are required, and for
everyday use, you won’t need them. However, as you get deeper into
JavaScript, you will find reasons to use all of them.

Asynchronicity and Promises

As we mentioned in the previous section, a fetch() request will
return a Promise. This is a special type of object which makes a
promise to us that a response will eventually be generated.
The fetch method is just one example of a function that requires
time to process. That’s because when we request an HTTP resource, we
need to load that resource, download it, and wait for the response. To
handle promises in the previous section, we used then(). This kind of
behaviour is called asynchronous, since the code is not paused while
the response is being generated.

let fetchExample = fetch("/some/api").then((res)

=> {
return res.json()
}).then((data) => {
let jsonData = data
})

If you don’t use then(), and try to console log a fetch request,
you’ll find the raw Promise instead, which will read “Promise
{<pending>}” on the console log.

let getData = fetch('/api/getData', { method:

'GET' })
console.log(getData) // Promise {<pending>}

Remember If you get stuck in JavaScript, try console logging! If

you console log Promise.prototype, you’ll find a few useful hints
on how it works. It contains the methods then, finally, and
catch.

We can generate our own promises by using Promise as a constructor.

Here is an example where we use two setTimeout() functions to do
something after 1 and 1.5 seconds

let myPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {

setTimeout(function() {
resolve(true)
}, 1000)
setTimeout(function() {
reject(false)
}, 1500)
})

Promise constructors accept a function with two arguments –

usually called resolve and reject. Both of these arguments are
functions.
 In simple terms, if a promise is resolved, it is successful. If it is
rejected, then an error is thrown. The return value is whatever is in the
brackets of the resolve or reject function. Since we wrote
resolve(true), and this is the first resolve/reject function to
fire, then the return value of this promise will simply be “true”.
If instead we’d written resolve({ "someData" : true}), the
return result would’ve been { "someData" : true }.

resolve(true)
// ...
reject(false)

Promise Methods: then, finally, and catch

Note If a promise is rejected, we have to use catch() to see its

contents rather than then()!

All promises have three methods attached to them, much like all objects
and strings have certain methods we can apply to them. These methods
are then, finally, and catch. You might find developers saying
that promises are thenable because you can always apply a then()
method to them. All three of these methods return a Promise, too,
allowing you to chain a never-ending sequence of promises.
In our first example, we used then to catch the promise and return
its data once the promise was resolved:

fetch("/some/api").then((res) => {
return res.json()
}).then((data) => {
let jsonData = data
})

The response of the fetch Promise is passed into the res

variable, which we can then parse as JSON using res.json(). The
reason why we can chain another “true” function is because then()
always returns a promise, meaning we can catch this new promise in
another then() function.
We can apply the same thought process to our previous example
where we used setTimeout() too:

let myPromise = new Promise((fulfill, reject) => {

setTimeout(function() {
fulfill(true)
}, 1000)
setTimeout(function() {
reject(false)
}, 1500)
})

myPromise.then((response) => {
console.log(response) // Console logs true
})

catch and finally

Now that we’ve looked at then(), let’s look at the two other methods
we have at our disposal when working with promises. These are
catch() and finally().
If a promise is rejected, “catch” can be used to catch the
error generated by that rejection and do something useful with it. This
gives us a useful way to create a path for errors in our promises. You
will find this particularly useful if a requested URL is expected to error
out sometimes. For example, we could console some error logs if an API
fails, rather than generating an actual error:

fetch("/some/api").then((res) => {
return res.json()
}).then((data) => {
let jsonData = data
}).catch((err) => {
console.log("We ran into an issue")
console.log(`Error: ${err}`)
})
 When a promise is fully resolved, meaning the final promise in a
chain resolves to be fulfilled or rejected, then we can use finally()
to do any final housekeeping.
The main use case for finally is to perform any final steps after a
promise is done. For example, we could show something to the user on
their screen, once an API has fired:

fetch("/some/api").then((res) => {
return res.json()
}).then((data) => {
let jsonData = data
}).finally(() => {
// Show #final-dialogue to user
document.getElementById("final-
dialogue").display = "block"
})

The await Keyword

While then() is a staple for processing promises, it does have some
limitations. For example, we can only access the results of a promise
inside a then() function. This causes problems if we want to use the
result of a promise elsewhere in our code.
If we want to wait for a promise to be fully parsed without needing
to use a then() function, we can use the await keyword instead. This
lets us keep promises in line with other code, but it has the downside of
pausing execution of the rest of the code until the promise is fulfilled.
For example, given an API that returns { someData: "value" },
we can wait for a response before parsing that data using this method:

let getApi = await fetch("/some/api")

let result = getApi.someData // "value"

Additionally, if you find yourself needing to use await inside a

function, you need to make the function async. Using the await
keyword inside functions is usually recommended since await will
only pause execution of that particular function, and not the entire
JavaScript code. Here is the same example from before, now running
inside a function instead:

let getApiFunction = async function() {

let getApi = await fetch("/some/api")
let result = getApi.someData // "value"
}

getApiFunction()

Originally, JavaScript only allowed await usage inside async

functions. Nowadays, most JavaScript engines also support await at
the top level of your application too.
If a promise is rejected and you use await instead of
then()/catch(), then a regular error is thrown in JavaScript, but
you can catch that in a try...catch expression instead.

Note await and then both have valuable uses. Deciding which to
use will depend on the structure of your code and how long APIs will
take to deliver. You don’t want to suspend all of your code due to a
slow API, but you may always need to wait for some APIs before
doing anything – like checking if a user is logged in via a login API.

Useful Promise Methods

There are four more really useful asynchronous promise methods that
you should also know about. These are used for processing multiple
promises at once. They are listed below:
Promise.race – Which will return the promise which finishes
first, when given multiple promises.
Promise.allSettled – Which will wait for all promises to finish
when given multiple promises and then return all promises as an
array (whether they were rejected or fulfilled). The order of the array
is the order the promises finished in.
Promise.all – Which will wait for all promises to finish when
given multiple promises and return all promises in an array, in the
 order they finished. If any promise is rejected, then it will return only
the rejected promise. This differs from Promise.allSettled,
which returns all promises, regardless of whether they were fulfilled
or rejected.
Promise.any – Which returns one promise, whichever one finishes
first.
All of these methods can be used with await, but the following
examples use then() and catch() instead. They all take arrays of
promises as input. The arrays can take as many promises as you like.
They also all return a Promise, letting you chain more promises onto
them.

Promise.allSettled
Promise.allSettled waits for all promises in an array to finish
before producing a new Promise with the results from all of those
promises:

let firstPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Hello World")
}, 1000))

let secondPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Not Sure
World") }, 500))

let thirdPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { reject("Goodbye World")
}, 200))

Promise.allSettled([firstPromise, secondPromise,
thirdPromise]).then((data) => {
console.log(data)
})

In the previous example, we have three promises, of which two

resolve and another rejects. When they all finish, the output is the
following:
{
{ status: 'fulfilled', value: 'Hello World' }
{ status: 'fulfilled', value: 'Not Sure World'
}
{ status: 'rejected', reason: 'Goodbye World'
}
}

When using any other method, you will get only the final value of
the Promise, making Promise.allSettled() different in the way
it returns Promise outcomes.

Promise.all
Promise.all() only returns one final outcome, for example, in the
following code:

let firstPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Hello World")
}, 1000))

let secondPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Not Sure
World") }, 500))

let thirdPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Goodbye
World") }, 200))

Promise.all([firstPromise, secondPromise,
thirdPromise]).then((data) => {
console.log(data)
})

The final output here is as follows:

['Hello World', 'Not Sure World', 'Goodbye World']

 If one promise had rejected, you would have to catch it using
catch(), and only the rejected promise would come back:

let firstPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Hello World")
}, 1000))

let secondPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Not Sure
World") }, 500))

let thirdPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { reject("Goodbye World")
}, 200))

Promise.all([firstPromise, secondPromise,
thirdPromise]).catch((data) => {
console.log(data)
})

The preceding code would simply return, “Goodbye World.”

Promise.race
Promise.race() accepts an array of promises, too, and the fastest
promise is returned. Using our previous examples, “Goodbye World” is
fastest so using Promise.race() here returns the string, “Goodbye
World”:

let firstPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Hello World")
}, 1000))

let secondPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Not Sure
World") }, 500))

let thirdPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Goodbye
World") }, 200))

Promise.race([firstPromise, secondPromise,
thirdPromise]).then((data) => {
console.log(data)
})

Promise.any
Promise.any is a lot like Promise.race – it returns the value of the
first promise to fulfill. The major difference is that Promise.race will
return the first Promise which rejects or fulfills, while Promise.any
will return only the first promise that fulfills. For example, even though
thirdPromise is faster than secondPromise, Promise.any will
return secondPromise as the final value since thirdPromise
rejects:

let firstPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Hello World")
}, 1000))

let secondPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { resolve("Not Sure
World") }, 500))

let thirdPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject)

=> setTimeout(function() { reject("Goodbye World")
}, 200))

Promise.any([firstPromise, secondPromise,
thirdPromise]).then((data) => {
console.log(data)
})

Promise.any then does something different if all promises reject.

In this scenario, it returns a specific error type called an
AggregateError. We can use catch() to catch this error:
Uncaught (in promise) AggregateError: All promises
were rejected

Summary
In this chapter, we’ve covered a lot of key concepts relating to APIs and
asynchronous behavior in this chapter. At the beginning, we looked at
how HTTP requests work. We then went into some detail about how we
can create our own HTTP requests, and the key concepts behind
RESTful design. After that, we looked at how we can create our
own servers in Node.js and how these can be used to receive HTTP
requests which we send on the front end via the fetch() function.
Since fetch() is asynchronous, we’ve also gone into detail about how
promises work, which is the type of object returned for asynchronous
responses in JavaScript. Finally, we looked at how we can process
promises using keywords and other functions.
Asynchronous behavior is really important in JavaScript since
JavaScript’s architecture means it doesn’t automatically wait for the
response from an asynchronous action before continuing in its
execution of code. As such, having a strong grasp of these concepts is
useful as you start to build your own applications. As such, the different
promise methods we’ve covered in this chapter are vital to building
modern web applications.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_11

11. Introduction to Web APIs

Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

Writing JavaScript in the browser means that a lot of what we can do is

limited by what the browser allows us to do. While core JavaScript
functionality lets us create functions, math, and variables, what if, for
example, we want to use the operating system’s notification system
from our code? Or store something locally on the user’s computer? For
each of these, JavaScript in the browser implements various Web APIs
to allow programmers to access this functionality.
We’ve actually already encountered two of these APIs, that being the
HTML DOM document API for query selecting HTML DOM elements and
the fetch API for creating HTTP requests. In this chapter, we’ll go over
Web APIs in more detail and look at some very important ones.

Web APIs
In the previous chapter, we looked at how JavaScript can be used to
create and call APIs from servers. While these are Web APIs in the
sense that they are implemented on the Web, usually the term “Web
API,” when used in relation to JavaScript, refers to a special type of API.
We have briefly covered Web APIs throughout the book, and we’ve
discussed how they allow for a type of multithreading. How this works
can be seen in Figure 11-1.
Figure 11-1 Web APIs are processed separately from your main JavaScript stack. They usually
interact with the operating system or run some more complicated code in the background (in
languages like C, C++, or Rust). Web APIs abstract the complexity into a few function calls

The diagram in Figure 11-1 gives you a hint at how Web APIs differ
from APIs built on a server. Web APIs exist within your browser. They
usually provide an interface between JavaScript and the operating
system.
Just like other APIs, Web APIs abstract complexity away from the
programmer. For example, the Web API we use for sending notifications
to the user via their operating system’s notification system may be
simple to call in JavaScript, but under the hood, this API will run some
more complicated code in other languages (like C and C++) to cause the
operating system to display a notification to the user.
Every Web API exists on the window object. That means that while
we could write window.fetch() to use the fetch API, it’s much more
common to omit window and simply run fetch().
 The list of Web APIs is long, and new APIs are developed all the
time. As well as that, support often varies from browser to browser for
many of them. As such, we won’t cover them all but instead focus on the
ones you will find most useful for browser-based JavaScript
development.
Web APIs usually arise from a specific need that is unfulfilled which
many developers frequently require. For example, the Web Storage API
is a Web API for storing data on a user’s local computer. Many Web APIs
do not have cross-browser support and are considered experimental,
meaning you need to be careful when using them. Although Web
Storage is broadly accepted these days, you may find developers
checking if the browser supports them by checking if they exist on the
window object. All Web APIs exist on the global window object, so you
can check for this support as is shown have done in the following
example:

if(window.localStorage) {
// The browser supports local storage
}

Frequently Used Web APIs

Web APIs usually give us fundamental functionality that many
developers find useful. Take notifications as an example. Historically,
developers built notifications into the website as <div> elements that
would appear upon some user action. This meant many thousands of
notification implementations. JavaScript then came up with the Web
Notification API to give us a standard way to notify users from our
applications. This did two things:
It improved the UX for users, giving them recognizable notifications
instead of custom in-browser versions.
It meant developers could spend more time solving other problems
rather than building their own versions instead.
Here are four more examples of where JavaScript has improved
developer experience through API:
The URL API, used for parsing URLs
 The Web Storage API for managing storage locally
The Notification API for sending notifications
The History API
Let’s look at these in detail to understand the problems they solve.

URL API
Before the URL API, developers would have to write their own scripts to
parse a URL, and many times, these were poorly implemented. The URL
API is a simple and standard Web API that can parse URLs. It is
implemented via the URL constructor, which parses a URL and returns
an object of its components:

let myUrl = new URL("https://some-

website.com/page")
console.log(myUrl) // Console logs the URL as an
object of components.
console.log(myUrl.pathname) // returns "/page"

Web Storage API

Before the Web Storage API, developers would store local data in the
majority of cases through cookies and, if needed, via back-end APIs. For
simple applications, back-end storage was often an overkill, meaning
applications could be more bloated than they needed to be.
The Web Storage API is a broad term covering two things:
sessionStorage and localStorage. This API allows you to store
data locally on your user’s computer. This can be useful for storing
things like settings. For example, if the user changes the theme of your
website, you could store such a setting in their localStorage.
While localStorage persists on your computer,
sessionStorage is deleted when the page is closed. The localStorage
and sessionStorage for a web page can be found under the Application
tab in your console, as shown in Figure 11-2.
Figure 11-2 localStorage and sessionStorage can be found along with other types of
storage in the Application tab of your console in Chrome. Other browsers have similar
summaries for you to view

Using localStorage is much more common, but

sessionStorage can find utility in some niche cases. Setting data in
localStorage and sessionStorage works via the setItem
method:

localStorage.setItem("someKey", "someValue")
sessionStorage.setItem("temporaryKey",
"temporaryValue")
 Both localStorage and sessionStorage store data in string
format, so an object should be stringified with JSON.stringify()
before being stored in your localStorage. Both localStorage and
sessionStorage have the same methods:
setItem(key, value) – To set a key–value pair in
localStorage or sessionStorage.
getItem(key) – To get the value of a key by the key’s name, that is,
localStorage.getKey("someKey").
removeItem(key) – To remove a key–value pair by the key’s
name, that is, localStorage.removeItem("someKey").
key(index) – To get the name of a key by the key’s index, that is,
key(0), to get the first key’s name. In our example where someKey
is the first key, then localStorage.key(0) will return
“someKey”.
clear() – To clear all data in either the sessionStorage or
localStorage, that is, localStorage.clear().

Note The Web Storage API gives us a simple way to store data on a
user’s computer, but it is quite limited. As such, another storage API
called the IndexedDB API exists to store more complex data.
Complex data storage usually happens on the back end, so you may
not find use for this, but it does exist if you have more complicated
front-end storage needs.

Web Notifications API

The Web Notification API is not always used for notifications, but it
gives developers a standard method for creating notifications from the
browser. Notifications created this way are sent to the user via their
operating system’s built-in notification system. In a previous era, before
we had access to this, we could only create notifications within the
website’s viewport itself.
The Notification API requires you to ask the user for permission to
send notifications so that websites don’t bother users with unnecessary
messages. Requesting this access must come via a user gesture, such as
clicking on a button:
document.getElementById("notification-
button").addEventListener(async (e) => {
await Notification.requestPermission()
})

The user will then be asked to review this permission request, after
which you can send them notifications. It’s important to know that
notifications can only be sent when the user has your web page open.
Notifications also have some additional options, letting us set the title,
body text, and icon for the notification:

const someNotification = new Notification("Some

Notification", {
body: "Main body text",
icon: "./images/some-image.png"
})

We can also close a particular notification by using the .close()

method:

someNotification.close()

History API
Before the History API, it was basically impossible to manipulate a
user’s history from JavaScript. The History API lets us do this from the
history global object. For example, we can force a user to navigate back
and forward like so:

history.back() // Go back one page.

history.forward() // Go forward one page.
history.go(-2) // Go back two pages.

The History API also opens up the possibility of other functionality,

such as letting us load a page without reloading. Before the History API,
we could load a web page via API when a user clicked a link and then
insert that page’s contents into the user’s <body> tag. Even though this
was relatively easy to do, we had no way to let the user navigate back
and forward with the browser’s navigation buttons after doing this.
 This creates an obvious and quite major UX problem! Fortunately,
the History API solves this for us, allowing us to update the URL of the
current page without the user having to reload.
To illustrate how this works, take a look at the following example. If
we want to change the user’s URL to have /page at the end, we can do
this:

history.pushState({ "page" : "Some Page Title" },

"", "/page")
window.addEventListener("popstate", (event) => {
console.log(event.state) // { "page" : "Some
Page Title" }
})

For the user, the page will not reload, but the URL will change. The
first parameter of pushState is data which is passed to the window’s
popstate event whenever pushState is fired. You can use this data
to do something else to the page inside the popstate event listener.
The second argument is never used and is usually left blank for
historical reasons. The last argument is the new page name of the URL.
If you were on https://google.com/ and fired this, the URL would
change to https://google.com/page.
While history.pushState() creates a new entry in the user’s
history, you can also use history.replaceState() to replace the
URL for the current entry in the user’s history, too. This works in
exactly the same way; only it won’t create a new entry in the user’s
history, meaning pressing back will just go back to the previous page
the user was on:

history.replaceState({ "page" : "Some Page Title"

}, "", "/page")

Summary
The APIs we’ve covered previously all solve a specific need that
JavaScript developers either had to create custom solutions for or
simply couldn’t do before. There are many more useful Web APIs, and
here are a few more examples with more niche functionality, which
have broad support in most modern browsers:
The Performance Web API, used to monitor website performance
(through window.Performance)
The File System Web API, used to manipulate a user’s local file
system (through a variety of window methods, like
window.showOpenFilePicker())
The Payments API, used to request payments via browser or OS built-
in payment tools (think Apple or Google Pay) (through
window.PaymentRequest)
The Selection API, used to get the location of the caret when editing
text or get a range of text characters currently selected by the user
(through window.Selection)
When using Web APIs, it’s important to check their browser
support. Not all browsers support the same features in JavaScript, so
some new Web APIs may work in Chrome, but not in Safari, for
example. You can explore the full functionality of the preceding Web
APIs and others in your own time or when your project needs them.
Functions, while loops, variables, and math are all fundamental to
JavaScript, but it would be hard to do anything interactive on the Web
without the use of Web APIs. Web APIs give us additional functionality
on top of all the core tenets of JavaScript, like notifications, local
storage, and HTTP requests. While we haven’t covered every Web API
here, the cool thing about JavaScript is that new ones are always being
created. In the next couple chapters, we’ll look at more Web APIs that
provide further useful functionality to your JavaScript applications.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_12

12. Errors and the Console

Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

Throughout this book, we’ve consistently relied on the console object

to debug and learn more about how JavaScript works. We’ve also
touched upon the fact that JavaScript can throw errors if you do
something it doesn’t understand. In this chapter, we’ll dive deeper into
how the console works, along with additional methods available to you
so that you can get the most out of it. After we’ve fully explored the
console, we’ll look at errors and how to handle them.

The Console Object

The console object is one of the most useful objects available to you in
JavaScript and we’ve used it extensively throughout this book.
If you are running Node.js, console logs appear in your
terminal directly. For browsers, they appear in the developer tools,
which can usually be accessed by right-clicking a web page and
choosing Inspect or Inspect Element. All modern browsers have
developer tools that include a console tab:

let x = 5
console.log(x) // console logs 5

The console object contains a multitude of other really useful

methods for debugging. Let’s dive into what these are, as you’ll find that
they come in handy when building larger applications.
Console Errors, Debugs, Warnings, and Info
As your code gets more complicated, you might find that you want to
inform yourself or other developers via the console of major problems.
For example, your API might not work if someone passes the wrong
data to it, so you might want to return an error or a warning.
Console warnings and errors are accessed via console.warning
and console.error, respectively. For example, if we wanted to
create an error where the error text was “You did something bad!” we’d
only need to do this:

console.error("You did something bad!")

As well as warnings and errors, we can invoke informative logs by

using a method called console.info or debug messages using
console.debug. Both work mostly the same as console.log. In
some browsers, it will be console.info will be displayed as
informative content, which means it may be formatted differently, while
in all JavaScript implementations, console.debug will only be shown
if debug messages are enabled by the user.

Console Tracing
If you have a long list of functions, you can trace the origin of them by
using console.trace. This outputs what is known as a trace to the
console. The resulting output of the following code can be seen in
Figure 12-1.

function someFunction() {
console.trace()
}

someFunction()
Figure 12-1 Console tracing can be useful when you have complicated functions. It tells you
exactly which function called which and where in the code it’s found

Console Assertion
Another way to create errors with the console is console.assert.
While related to console errors, console.assert is a little different
in that it accepts multiple arguments, and it throws an error only if the
first expression is false. The second argument is the error that will be
shown to the user. In the following example, we assert that 5 is equal to
4. Since this is obviously false, an error with the error text, “the
assertion is false,” is shown to the user. This can be seen in Figure 12-2.

console.assert(5 === 4, "the assertion is false")

Figure 12-2 Console assertions let you show errors if certain criteria are found to be false

Console Timing
Typical JavaScript code is not exactly known for its efficiency. If you
write bad code in JavaScript, it has the propensity to take a really long
time to process. For example, it’s possible to write code that pauses
execution via promises, waits for APIs to load, or has inefficient
calculations that result in long wait times.
All of these impact page load time and therefore user experience.
Search engines like Google use page load time to figure out where to
place your website in search results. Therefore, optimizing your
JavaScript is really important, and the best way to find code that is
performing code is by measuring how long it takes to run. To help
diagnose these problems, there are three console methods we can use.
These are listed below:
console.time
console.timeLog
console.timeEnd
Instead of console logging a specific string of text, these methods
create timers, which return the time in milliseconds. If we wanted to
create a timer with the name “my timer,” we would first run
console.time("my timer") to initiate the timer. From the point
where that is called, the clock starts ticking.
Then when we want to log the time, we use
console.timeLog("my timer") using the same name as we
initiated with. When we want to stop, we use
console.timeEnd("my timer").
In the following example, we log three timers inside setTimeout
functions:

console.time("my timer")

setTimeout(function() {
console.timeLog("my timer")
}, 1000)

setTimeout(function() {
console.timeLog("my timer")
console.timeEnd("my timer")
}, 1500)

The output of this code in the console looks like this:

my timer: 1002.744140625 ms
my timer: 1506.8349609375 ms
my timer: 1507.031005859375 ms

As you can see, this is roughly correct, give or take a few

milliseconds for processing the console method itself. You can call
console.timeLog as many times as you want, and
console.timeEnd will also result in one line of time recording in
your console.

Console Counting
Another method that works the same as console.time is
console.count. It accepts a unique value, and every time it is called,
it will add 1 to the count for that value. For example:

console.count("my count")
console.count("my count")
console.count("my count")

This shows in the console as follows:

my count: 1
my count: 2
my count: 3

If you want to reset the counter to the beginning again, you can then
use console.countReset("my count").

Note You can clear your console entirely by invoking

console.clear(). This will work in browsers but will do nothing
if your log is in a terminal (like when using Node.JS).

Other Useful Console Methods

If you want to find out the full power which console gives to you, just
console log the console object to see all the methods at your disposal:

console.log(console)

We’ve covered many of the most useful console methods, and you
can mess around with these in your own time. Let’s look at the
remaining methods and how they work in more detail.
Console Grouping
You can group console logs with console.group and
console.groupCollapsed.
Both indent console logs, creating multiple levels of console. The
main difference between both is that when using
console.groupCollapsed, the groups are collapsed, and the user must
expand them to read the console. In the following example, we create
two levels of console log. The output of this can be seen in Figure 12-3.

console.log("Hi") // Top Level

console.group("Level 1") // Level 1 Group
console.log("Hi") // All of these are within Level
1 Group
console.log("Hi")
console.log("Hi")
console.group("Level 2") // Level 2 Group
console.log("Hi") // All of these are within Level
2 Group, which are within Level 1
console.log("Hi")
Figure 12-3 A depiction of how console grouping looks. If using
console.groupCollapsed, the groups would be closed by default instead of expanded

Note If you console an object using console.dir instead of

console.log, it creates an expandable view of the object like
shown when using console.group. This can be useful for deep
objects, where you only want to expand certain sections.

Console Tables
Finally, console.table allows you to create tables of objects or
arrays. For example, given the following input, we can produce a table
as is shown in Table 12-1.

const favoriteFruits = [
["Person", "Favorite Fruit"],
["John", "Apple"],
["Mary", "Raspberry"]
]
console.table(favoriteFruits)
Table 12-1 Console.table gives us the ability to create table views inside the console

Person Favorite Fruit

John Apple
Mary Raspberry

The same method can be applied to objects. For example, the

following code will create a table in the console similar to the one
shown in Table 12-2.

const favoriteFruits = {
"name" : "John",
"age" : 105,
"place" : "Planet Earth"
}
console.table(favoriteFruits)
Table 12-2 Console.table supports both objects and arrays

index value
name John
age 105
place Planet Earth

Errors and Exceptions

We’ve now covered consoles and everything you can do with them.
We’ve shown how you can create your own error messages using
consoles too. In previous chapters, we’ve run into errors, which is when
JavaScript runs into a problem that it cannot resolve. JavaScript is quite
good at resolving most coding mistakes, so errors really are the last
resort!
You’ll run into all sorts of errors in JavaScript. The main kinds of
errors in JavaScript are listed below:
ReferenceError – We tried to reference a variable that did not
exist.
EvalError – An issue happened while we tried to run eval().
TypeError – An issue happened due to something relating to type –
that is, a function was expecting one type and got another.
RangeError – An issue happened as we tried to call something
outside the range of what was expected, that is, we called an array
element that did not exist.
AggregateError – An error which contains many errors.
URIError – We have an invalid URI string or have used a URI
function incorrectly.
We can avoid most errors or exceptions by ensuring our code is
good quality and being strict about type control. In general, you’ll want
to avoid errors, but if you do run into them, there are ways to get
around them too.

Note Each of the preceding error types are standalone objects.

That means console.log(ReferenceError) is valid
 JavaScript, for example.

try…catch
When we generate errors in our code, usually they terminate execution.
That means JavaScript stops trying to process anything else. We
obviously don’t want that to happen, since it will break the user
experience!
Sometimes though, errors can be unavoidable. For example, passing
non-JSON values to JSON.parse() will usually result in an error. This
can happen quite easily, especially if you are working with badly
written APIs.
To prevent these kinds of errors from breaking our code, we can use
try...catch:

try {
let JSONData = JSON.parse(inputData)
}
catch (e) {
console.log("Could not parse JSON!")
let JSONData = {}
}

If the code passes with no errors, then great – we have parsed some
JSON. If it does not, then the error is “caught” in the catch statement.
The e in catch refers to the error text itself with a trace of where the
error came from.
Using a catch statement here gives us the opportunity to not only
prevent an error from causing our code to stop execution but also to set
the JSONData variable to an empty object, in case we need to
reference JSONData later.
We can generate our own errors on purpose using the throw control
statement. Usually we use this when something bad has happened in
our code, and we want to end execution. When used in a
try...catch block, it results in the catch block always being used:

try {
 throw "Some Error"
}
catch (e) {
console.log("An error was generated")
}

finally
We can supplement try...catch with a finally statement, which
will immediately fire before a control statement from a try or catch
block or before execution completes where a control statement does
not exist.
A finally statement does not catch the error. That means if you
omit the catch, an error will still be thrown. In the following example,
finally will run before the error appears since finally runs
immediately before any control statements (think return, throw,
break or continue) complete. That means JSONData is defined as
{} in the following example even though an error is still thrown (since
“ok” is not valid JSON):

try {
let JSONData = JSON.parse("ok")
}
finally {
let JSONData = {}
}

If we had caught this error, then JSONData would have been set to
{}, and the error would not have been shown at all. This allows us to
separate out the catching of the error from defining alternatives:

try {
let JSONData = JSON.parse("ok")
}
catch(e) {
console.log("Your JSON is invalid")
}
finally {
let JSONData = {}
console.log(JSONData)
}

Since finally will run control statements before try and catch
complete, it can be used to mask the value of try and catch control
statements. For example, in the following example we try to return
some valid JSON. This is returned, but finally always fires before the last
control statement in a try or catch. As such, the return value is set to
{} since that is what finally returns. A diagram of the try...catch...finally
flow can be found in Figure 12-4.

function someFunction() {
try {
return { "hello" : "world" }
}
finally {
return {}
}
}

console.log(someFunction()) // Console logs {}

Note We’ve covered control statements before, just under different

topics. Control statements can be break, throw, return, or
continue.
Figure 12-4 Finally will always fire before try and catch control statements. However, the rest
of the try and catch code before the control statement will be executed before finally

Generating Errors
We have already seen how throw can be used to generate errors.
Errors generated with throw stop code execution, unless caught in a
try...catch statement.
We can get more control over our error statements by using the new
Error() constructor instead. However, by itself, new Error() does
not actually generate a new error as the code suggests! Instead, it
creates the text that would appear in the error. In the following
example, the error generated will not stop execution but generate a text
string with the line on which new Error() was generated from. You
can see what that looks like in Figure 12-5.

new Error("Hello World")

Figure 12-5 Using the Error constructor does not create a new error but rather creates the
text that would appear for that error

If you want to generate an execution breaking error, you have to

throw your error, too:
throw new Error("Hello World")

Handling Specific Errors

We’ve now looked at how to generate errors, but sometimes, a part of
your code can be known to have the potential to throw multiple types
of errors. Separating these errors out to handle each individually can be
useful. We can check for error types using the instanceof keyword
and then handle specific error cases in different ways. In the following
example, we create two error handling routes: one if the error is a
SyntaxError and another if it is an EvalError:

try {
JSON.parse("OK")
} catch(e) {
if(e instanceof SyntaxError) {
console.log("This is a syntax error");
} else if(e instanceof EvalError) {
console.log("This was an error with the
eval() function");
}
}

In this example, since JSON.parse("OK") is a SyntaxError,

the first console log will fire.

Summary
In this chapter, we’ve covered all the key principles around JavaScript
consoles. We’ve shown you that there are many useful methods found
on the console object, which can be used to bring more meaning to your
console logs.
We’ve also discussed errors. We’ve covered all the types of errors
that JavaScript can throw at you and how to catch errors through
try...catch...finally statements. Finally, we’ve shown how
you can generate your own errors using throw statements.
Error management and console logging are really important in
ensuring your users have a good experience. Ideally, users should not
be exposed to raw errors, and developers should have access to good
console logs. By becoming familiar with everything we’ve covered here,
you can begin to add these best practice principles into your code.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_13

13. The Canvas

Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

So far, we have only dealt with code that is used either directly in
JavaScript or on the HTML DOM. Operations to modify the DOM are
easy to do in JavaScript, but they are relatively slow when compared to
other JavaScript code. You’ll begin to notice these inefficiencies if you
have thousands of DOM elements on your page and apply interactions
to them using addEventListener. This makes creating DOM-based
games or large interactive applications like whiteboards nearly
impossible from a performance perspective. At one point, I learned this
the hard way when trying to recreate the original Mario game by using
a one HTML DOM element to a one-pixel scale. Eventually, such complex
applications become totally unresponsive.
Some JavaScript frameworks try to improve on DOM inefficiencies
by converting the entire DOM into an object, called the Virtual DOM.
This is useful for websites wanting to load faster but still does not
address the former problem, where just having many DOM elements
becomes problematic in large applications.
To get around this problem, and others, we have an HTML element
called <canvas> and an associated JavaScript Canvas API, which lets
us draw interactive content onto a single HTML element. Canvas is just
normal JavaScript code, with a few additional functions and methods
that allow us to draw. It is much more efficient than large scale DOM–
based applications but is not really recommended as a way to build
entire websites in. Instead, canvas should be used for small pieces of
interactive content, interactive games, or parts of interactive
applications. In this chapter, we’ll cover how the Canvas API works in
JavaScript.

Introduction
To get started with HTML canvas, we first need to create a <canvas>
element. This empty tag becomes the container for the graphic we
will produce via JavaScript. In HTML, we can create a canvas by writing
the following code:

<canvas id="canvasElement" width="500"

height="400"></canvas>

You may see canvas with predefined width and height, which is
useful if the graphic we’re producing has to have a certain size. You
could set your canvas to be of width and height 100%, too.
Once set up, we can reference our canvas in JavaScript using any
JavaScript selector method:

let myCanvas =
document.getElementById("canvasElement")

// Set the context of our canvas

let context = myCanvas.getContext("2d")

When we use getContext on a <canvas> element, like we have

in the preceding context variable, it generates a new object with all of
the additional methods required to work with canvas. You can console
log context itself to see these methods:

console.log(context)

By using these methods, we can draw directly onto the canvas

HTML element.
The preceding object created is a CanvasRenderingContext2D
object since the context we used is 2D. That means the expectation is
we will only create 2D drawings on our canvas. Additional contexts can
be applied. The full list is shown in the following:
 canvas.getContext("2d") – Creates a
CanvasRenderingContext2D object for 2D drawing.
canvas.getContext("webgl") – Creates a
WebGLRenderingContext object. This is only available if your
browser supports webGL but gives additional methods for working
in a 3D space.
canvas.getContext("webgpu") – Creates a
GPUCanvasContext object. This is only available if your browser
supports webGPU – the successor to webGL.
canvas.getContext("bitmaprenderer") – Creates an
ImageBitmapRenderingContext object. This is used for
drawing images onto the canvas. ImageBitmaps are more performant
than other image data since they are processed directly on the GPU.
All of these settings create objects with useful methods in each
context. In this chapter, we will focus on the 2d context as it is the most
widely used. From here on out, most of the work on our canvas element
stems from the context variable.

Reminder When referencing the canvas element as we have done

earlier, make sure you place your JavaScript at the end of your file –
otherwise, the canvas element will return null. Alternatively, you can
add the DOMContentLoaded event to your document and place
your canvas code within that event listener. We covered this in
Chapter 8.

Drawing and Images

Drawing shapes on a canvas requires using methods available on the
context variable created with getContext("2d"). WebGL, Bitmap,
and WebGPU contexts will have different methods, so ensure you have
the right context set up.

Drawing Rectangles
Three main methods exist for drawing rectangles:
 context.rect(x, y, width, height) – Outlines where a
rectangle or square should be but does not fill it.
context.fillRect(x, y, width, height) – Creates a
rectangle and immediately fills it.
context.strokeRect(x, y, width, height) – Creates a
rectangle and immediately outlines it with a stroke.
For each of these the arguments x, y, width, and height refer to
a pixel coordinate to draw the rectangle. Therefore the width and
height of your canvas become quite important. The width and height
you set on your canvas element is the drawing location.
For example, if your canvas was 400px by 600px in size, drawing
something at point 500px, 700px would be not visible, as it would no
longer be on the canvas – however, drawing something at 200px, 200px
would be 200px in on both the x and y coordinates.

Note If you change the size of your canvas with CSS, it will not
affect the drawing area; that can only be affected by the width and
height properties. That means that if the canvas HTML element is
200px by 200px, and you set width and height to 100px by 100px,
the resolution of the canvas will double!

By themselves, the rectangle functions are not of much use. You need to
combine them with other methods for them to become visible. For
example, if we want to create a rectangle, context.rect() will
create the “information” about where the rectangle is, but
context.fill() and context.stroke() are required to give it a
color and outline, respectively:

let canvas =
document.getElementById("canvasElement")
let context = canvas.getContext("2d")

context.rect(10, 10, 100, 150)

context.fill()
context.stroke()
 By default, the stroke and fill color are both black. We can further
enhance our drawings by setting custom stroke widths, fill colors, and
stroke colors by using lineWidth, fillStyle, and stokeStyle,
respectively:

let canvas =
document.getElementById("canvasElement")
let context = canvas.getContext("2d")

context.rect(10, 10, 100, 150)

context.fillStyle = "#8effe0"
context.strokeStyle = "#42947e"
context.lineWidth = 5
context.fill()
context.stroke()

It’s worth noting that canvas in HTML is sequentially written. The

fill style will apply to any drawn elements until another is drawn. So if
we wanted to draw two rectangles beside each other in different colors,
we’d have to update the values of fillStyle and strokeStyle. We
also have to start each new shape with the beginPath method. That
way, canvas will know that the fill and stroke styles apply only to
specific rectangles. You can see an example of that code in the following
and an illustration of what it will look like in Figure 13-1.

context.beginPath()
context.rect(10, 10, 100, 150)
context.fillStyle = "#8effe0"
context.strokeStyle = "#42947e"
context.lineWidth = 5
context.fill()
context.stroke()
context.closePath()
context.beginPath()
context.rect(120, 10, 100, 150)
context.fillStyle = "#42947e"
context.strokeStyle = "#8effe0"
context.lineWidth = 5
context.fill()
context.stroke()

Figure 13-1 Two rectangles draw beside each other in separate colors using beginPath

Both context.strokeRect and context.fillRect work the

same way as context.rect; only there is no need to call
context.stroke() and context.fill(), respectively.

Drawing Circles
Two methods exist on 2d canvas contexts to draw circles:
context.arc() for drawing regular arcs
context.ellipse() for drawing ellipses rather than circles
The arc() method has the following arguments, with the last being
optional:

ctx.arc(x, y, radius, startAngle, endAngle,

counterClockwise?)

Each of these arguments can be found below:

x – Refers to the x coordinate of the center of the circle
y – Refers to the y coordinate of the center of the circle
radius – The radius of the arc we are drawing
startAngle – The angle at which the arc starts (in radians)
endAngle – The angle at which the arc ends (in radians)
counterClockwise – Whether the angle goes counterclockwise
(default is false, can be set to true)
 Meanwhile, the ellipse() method has the following arguments:

ctx.ellipse(x, y, radiusX, radiusY, rotation,

startAngle, endAngle, counterClockwise?)
The arguments here are similar. Here is the full list along with
definitions:
x – Refers to the x coordinate of the center of the circle
y – Refers to the y coordinate of the center of the circle
radiusX – The radius along the x axis of the arc we are drawing
radiusY – The radius along the y axis of the arc we are drawing
rotation – How much we wish to rotate our ellipse shape, in
radians
startAngle – The angle at which the arc starts (in radians)
endAngle – The angle at which the arc ends (in radians)
counterClockwise – Whether the angle goes counterclockwise
(default is false, can be set to true)
Since both use radians for degrees, we have to use the Math.PI
constants to refer to angles for each. In the following example, we
create a full circle using context.arc(), since 2π is equal to 360
degrees:

let canvas =
document.getElementById("canvasElement")
let context = canvas.getContext("2d")

context.arc(100, 100, 45, 0, Math.PI * 2, false)

context.fillStyle = "#42947e"
context.fill()

You can create semicircles too by using Math.PI instead of

Math.PI * 2. You can also begin your circle at any starting angle, too.
Here is an example of a pie chart, created by drawing only a sideways
semicircle beside our original circle:

// Semi Circle (Math.PI * 1 is a semi circle)

context.beginPath()
context.arc(210, 100, 45, Math.PI * 1.5, Math.PI *
2.5, false)
context.fill()

When creating ellipses, two radii are used: radiusX and radiusY
allow us to squish or morph a circle along two axes. Let’s add an ellipse
to our group, too. You can see all three of our circles in Figure 13-2.

context.beginPath()
context.ellipse(350, 100, 45, 25, 0, Math.PI * 2,
false)
context.fillStyle = "#42947e"
context.fill()

Figure 13-2 Our final group of circles – one created using Math.PI * 2 radians, the second
Math.PI radians, and the final one using two radii via the ellipse() method

Note After drawing on a canvas, you can clear a section of it or

your entire canvas by calling canvas.clearRect(x, y,
width, height). This will clear a portion of the canvas starting at
the x and y coordinates and ending at the width and height.

Drawing Triangles
Since there are no triangle methods in canvas, we have to make our
own. To do that, we need to learn about the moveTo and lineTo
methods. The first moves the starting point of a line to a specific
position, and the second draws a line between that point and another.
Creating an equilateral triangle looks like this:
let canvas =
document.getElementById("canvasElement")
let context = canvas.getContext("2d")

context.moveTo(20, 0)
context.lineTo(40, 30)
context.lineTo(0, 30)
context.lineTo(20, 0)
context.fillStyle = "#42947e"
context.fill()

Since moveTo does not draw lines, we can draw multiple triangles
(or indeed, as many different types of shapes as we want using moveTo
and lineTo. In the following, we draw two identical triangles using
this method. You can also see this code in action in Figure 13-3.

context.moveTo(20, 0)
context.lineTo(40, 30)
context.lineTo(0, 30)
context.lineTo(20, 0)

context.moveTo(80, 0)
context.lineTo(100, 30)
context.lineTo(60, 30)
context.lineTo(80, 0)
context.fillStyle = "#b668ff"
context.fill()

Figure 13-3 Two identical triangles drawn using the moveTo and lineTo methods

Drawing Images
While drawing shapes is useful when working with the canvas, you may
also find yourself needing to add images. Images work a little
differently from what we’ve seen so far. To create a new image, we have
to use the image constructor to add them to our canvas.
Since images are loaded over HTTP, we also need to wait for them to
load before we can add them to our canvas. Here is an example of how
we do that:

// Create our image

let newImage = new Image()
newImage.src = "https://google.com/some-image.png"

// When it loads
newImage.onload = () => {
// Draw the image onto the context
context.drawImage(newImage, 0, 0, 250, 208);
}

context.drawImage() is the method used to draw the image

onto our canvas. It is similar to previous methods, where it takes x and
y coordinates, along with the width and height you wish the image to be
displayed at:

context.drawImage(image, x, y, width, height)

A more complicated version of this method is also available, which

allows for cropping:

ctx.drawImage(image, cx, cy, sw, sh, x, y, width,

height)

The definitions for each argument in this version are shown in the
following list. You can also see a demonstration of how these arguments
alter the image in Figure 13-4.
image – The image we want to use, generated from our new
Image() constructor.
cx – This is how far from the top left we want to crop the image by.
So if it is 50, the image will be cropped 50px from the left-hand side.
 cy – This is how far from the top we want to crop the image by. So if
it is 50, the image will be cropped 50px from the top side.
sw – This is how big we want the image to be from the point of cx. So
if 100, the image will continue for 100px from cx and then be
cropped at that point.
sh – This is how big we want the image to be from the point of ch. So
if 100, the image will continue for 100px from ch and then be
cropped at that point.
x – The x position on the canvas for the top left corner of the image.
y – The y position on the canvas for the top left corner of the image.
width – The width of the image. If left blank, the original image
width is used.
height – The height of the image. If left blank, the original image
height is used.

Figure 13-4 An example of how image cropping works. The image is first cropped using the
arguments cx, cy, cw, and ch. That cropped image is then painted on the canvas at positions x
and y, with a width of width and height

Drawing Text
Now that we’ve covered images and shapes, let’s take a look at how we
can add text to a canvas. As with previous examples, various functions
and properties also exist to add text to a canvas:

let canvas =
document.getElementById("canvasElement")
let context = canvas.getContext("2d")

context.font = "bold 88px Arial"

context.strokeStyle = "red"
context.lineWidth = 4
context.strokeText("Hello World!", 100, 200)

The preceding example will create text with a 4px red stroke, at
position 100x200px. We can also use fillText(), if we want to fill
the text with a specific color instead. Using either does not prevent us
from using fillStyle with fill() or strokeStyle with
stroke(), so you can decide which method to use based on what is
more useful.
It’s worth noting that by default, the 100x200px is taken from the
bottom left of the text, at the text’s baseline, rather than the top left. To
change where the y coordinate is drawn from, we can change the text’s
baseline. For example, the following code will draw the y coordinate
from the middle of the text instead:

context.textBaseline = "middle"

Any normal text baseline is accepted. You will be familiar with these
if you’ve ever used text baselines in CSS. The accepted values are top,
middle, bottom, hanging, alphabetic, and ideographic,
where ideographic only really applies to East Asian scripts.
Similarly, we can change where the x coordinate begins drawing
from by using textAlign, which can be set to left to start drawing
from the left of the text, center to start drawing from the middle,
and right to start drawing from the far right:

context.textAlign = "center"

Note You will need to change the textBaseline or textAlign

before stroking the text; otherwise it the change will not be rendered

The methods we’ve covered so far for drawing rectangles, circles,

triangles/lines, images, and text are only the beginning. You can find all
methods available to you by console logging the context variable. Try
playing around to see what you can do!

Interactivity and Creating a Drawing

Application
To practice what we’ve learned so far, let’s create a simple drawing
application, which will allow the user to draw directly onto the
canvas. Since the canvas is an HTML DOM element like any other, it is
also susceptible to the same methods as any other HTML DOM element.
However, since the canvas does not contain elements itself, any events
need to be added to the canvas alone, which means you often have to do
a bit more mathematics to find out what the user is doing. Consider our
use case’s basic requirements:
We have a canvas element.
When a user clicks the element and drags, we want to track their
mouse position and draw a line as they drag.
When they let go, the line will no longer be drawn.
The user can then draw more lines if they want to.
This sounds complicated, but it consists of only three events:
An event for when the user clicks the canvas to initiate dragging
(pointerdown)
An event for when the user drags (pointermove) to draw the line
 An event for when the user lets go (pointerup) to stop the
rectangle from being dragged anymore
For this example, we’ll be using the following HTML canvas element:

<canvas id="canvasElement" width="500"

height="400"></canvas>

In code, the three events we just described can be defined as

shown in the following code. We can use a variable called clicked to
store the state of whether a user clicked or not. If they click, clicked
becomes true, and therefore dragging is occurring. If they let go, then
clicked is false, and dragging has stopped. While clicked is
true, we can track the user’s cursor position and draw a rectangle in
the right place:

let clicked
canvas.addEventListener("pointerdown", (e) => {
clicked = true
})

canvas.addEventListener("pointermove", (e) => {

if(clicked) {
// Dragging is occurring
}
})

canvas.addEventListener("pointerup", (e) => {

clicked = false
})

Since the down and up events only control when drawing starts and
stops, let’s focus in on pointermove, where most of the logic for
drawing will sit. There are two things to consider here:
We can use e.pageX and e.pageY to get the live position of the
user’s cursor relative to the page.
 The canvas itself exists on a web page, and as such it is not
necessarily at the top left of the page. We therefore have to calculate
the user’s cursor relative to the canvas.
Therefore, we need to get the canvas’ top left position and subtract
this from the cursor position in order to calculate where the user is
clicking inside the canvas. An image demonstrating how this works can
be found in Figure 13-5.

Figure 13-5 Getting a cursor’s position within an element can be achieved by subtracting the
element’s position from the cursor’s position. That way, when the cursor is at the top left of the
element, it is add (0, 0). Previously, canvas x and y coordinates can be retrieved via
canvas.getBoundingClientRect()’s x and y properties. The cursor x and y can be
retrieved by e.pageX and e.pageY, respectively

To get the canvas position, we use an HTML DOM method called

getBoundingClientRect(). We covered this function in a previous
chapter, but getBoundingClientRect() gives us all the location
data on a particular HTML element, as is shown below:
x – The x position of the element’s top left corner
y – The y position of the element’s top left corner
width – The width of the element
height – The height of the element
 top – The position of the top of the element
left – The position of the left of the element
right – The position of the right of the element
bottom – The position of the bottom of the element
All of these properties include padding and border width, but not
margin. So x refers to where the border starts, and not the margin, for
example. We can access these on our canvas element by selecting the
canvas element, and then applying the appropriate
getBoundingClientRect() method. For example, we can get the x
coordinate like so:

let canvas =
document.getElementById("canvasElement")
let canvasXPosition =
canvas.getBoundingClientRect().x

As we just described, we can get the cursor position relative to the

canvas by subtracting the canvas position from the cursor position. We
will store this data in variables so that we can access it later.

canvas.addEventListener("pointermove", (e) => {

if(clicked) {
let canvasPosition =
canvas.getBoundingClientRect()
let cursorLeft = e.pageX -
canvasPosition.x
let cursorTop = e.pageY - canvasPosition.y
console.log(cursorLeft, cursorTop)
}
})

The final step in our canvas interactivity use case is to draw a line as
the user moves their “pressed down” cursor. To simplify this, I’ve
decided to just draw a 5x5px rectangle every time the user drags their
cursor. Our final code lets us draw on the canvas element, as
expected in the original requirements.
let canvas =
document.getElementById("canvasElement")
let context = canvas.getContext("2d")

let clicked

canvas.addEventListener("pointerdown", (e) => {

clicked = true
})

canvas.addEventListener("pointermove", (e) => {

if(clicked) {
let canvasPosition =
canvas.getBoundingClientRect()
let cursorLeft = e.pageX -
canvasPosition.x
let cursorTop = e.pageY - canvasPosition.y

context.rect(cursorLeft, cursorTop, 5, 5)
context.fill()

}
})

canvas.addEventListener("pointerup", (e) => {

clicked = false
})

Animations
The final piece of functionality that the Canvas API can help us with is
smooth animations. To perform animations in general, we usually use
the top-level requestAnimationFrame() method. This is actually a
pretty cool function, which calls any function passed to it 60 times per
second, producing an effective frame rate of 60fps.
The function passed to requestAnimationFrame gains an
argument, usually referred to as timestamp, which is the current
timestamp in milliseconds for the request. Since
requestAnimationFrame calls 60 times per second, you won’t get a
result for every millisecond!
In the following example, we use requestAnimationFrame to
create a recursive function. A recursive function is simply one that calls
itself again and again, which means the function can be called
continuously on a 60fps cycle. For this animation, we’ll be using this
HTML canvas tag:

<canvas id="canvasElement" width="500"

height="400"></canvas>

Since this would just last forever, we limit this recursion until the
timeStamp is more than 50000 milliseconds – or 50 seconds. That
will result in an animation which is 50 seconds long. This way, we don’t
end up with a function that runs until infinity.
The following animation creates a rectangle every 10 pixels, giving
the illusion of a box that is filling up with 10x10px rectangles. While
this is quite a simple animation, you can imagine how this could be
changed to make more complicated computations. You can see how this
animation looks part way through in Figure 13-6.

let canvas =
document.getElementById("canvasElement")
let context = canvas.getContext("2d")

let y = 0
let x = -500
function drawCanvas(timeStamp) {
x += 10
let xCoordinate = x + 490
if(x > 0) {
x = -500
y += 10
}
context.rect(xCoordinate, y, 10, 10)
context.fill()
 // If timestamp is less than 50s, then run the
animation
// keyframe
if(timeStamp < 50000) {
requestAnimationFrame(drawCanvas)
}
}

requestAnimationFrame(drawCanvas)

Figure 13-6 The canvas is the perfect place to perform animations since we aren’t burdened
by slow DOM updates. By using requestAnimationFrame(), we can also ensure a smooth
60fps animation

Summary
In this chapter, we’ve covered everything you need to get started with
HTML canvas. You should know enough from this chapter to play
around with it yourself. We’ve discussed how you can draw shapes, add
text or images, and then subsequently add interactivity to your canvas
via event listeners. We’ve also covered animations, which can be used
to create interactive experiences for users in the browser.
The Canvas API is an efficient way to draw content for users or add
interactivity to certain views. It also supports 3D contexts too, which
can be utilized to create games in the browser. We won’t cover here
how 3D contexts work, but a popular framework called Three.JS can
help you get started with that.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
J. Simpson, How JavaScript Works
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9738-4_14

14. Web Workers and Multithreading

Jonathon Simpson1
(1) Belfast, Antrim, UK

Most implementations of JavaScript are single-threaded, with some exceptions. As

JavaScript has begun to do more and more in terms of computation, the fact that a
lot of processing is confined to a single thread has become somewhat limiting even
with Web APIs to bear some of that load. On a single thread, for example, poorly
written but computationally intensive code can stop the entire application from
working.
To solve this problem and many more, the Web Workers API has been designed
to give JavaScript a generic way to implement multiple threads, allowing
complicated applications to outsource certain functionality to other threads on the
same device. In this chapter, we’ll be exploring what web workers are and how
they work in both Node.JS and on the front end.

Introduction
Web workers are an advanced concept, and they are not needed for everyday
JavaScript. If you are creating a website, you probably don’t need web workers. In
fact, you won’t need web workers to do anything in JavaScript – but you’ll probably
want them for some things.
An example of where web workers become useful is when you have written
something that requires heavy computation. For example, imagine you have an
advanced image processor. If the image processor takes five minutes to run, your
single-threaded JavaScript will be frozen until that operation is completed. With
web workers, you can outsource that processing to another thread, so that it
doesn’t take up your main thread.

Note You cannot run a web worker in JS files on your computer. It needs to be
run on a server. That means you can set up your own Node.JS server as we did
in Chapter 10, or you can get a web host to host your files on.
In Chapter 5, we discussed how JavaScript can outsource calculations to Web APIs,
which process code on a separate thread, and then pass it back to JavaScript via
the event loop. Web workers work in a similar way, as shown in Figure 14-1.

Figure 14-1 Messages can be sent to web workers, causing the web worker to start processing. Then, an
output will be produced, which can be captured on the main stack by events, for processing by the main
thread

Since web workers still result in code coming back to the stack, you may need
to think about how you outsource computation. For example, an API running via
fetch still has its own thread on the server and does computation asynchronously
without affecting your front-end JavaScript code. Therefore, an API may be all you
need to fulfill your needs. Web workers are most useful when you want to create
multithreaded code locally, without relying on API servers.

Using Web Workers

In the browser and on the front end, web workers start out with the new
Worker() constructor. For example, we can set the file some-worker.js to be a
web worker by running the following code:

const myWorker = new Worker("./thread.js")

Web worker files are in a special format, and in the browser, they consist of a
single onmessage event. Inside that, there is usually a postMessage function,
which contains the data we want to send back to the main thread. For example, a
simple web worker file, like thread.js, might look like this:

onmessage = function(e) {
postMessage(`Worker Data: ${e.data}`)
}

Sending Messages to and from Web Workers

In thread.js, the onmessage event is what happens any time the worker
receives input. The postMessage function is what is sent back to the main
thread:

onmessage = function(e) {
postMessage(`Worker Data: ${e.data}`)
}

In our main JavaScript file, we can send data to our worker by using
postMessage on the worker:

const myWorker = new Worker("./thread.js")

myWorker.postMessage("Hello World")

The worker data is received by the worker, and it is stored in e.data. We can do
whatever we want with this data – for example, if we sent an object like this:

const myWorker = new Worker("./thread.js")

myWorker.postMessage({ startScript: true })

Oftentimes, you’ll find code triggering web workers on some kind of user-
based event, like clicking a button:

document.getElementById('button').addEventListener('click',
function(e) {
myWebWorker.postMessage({ "message" : "outcome" });
});

We could use a message from a user event in the thread.js file to trigger
some kind of processing. When the processing is done, we can send a message
back to the main thread. This can be any type of data, such as an object or string.
In our hypothetical example where our web worker is an image processor,
postMessage could send back a processed image to the main thread:
onmessage = function(e) {
if(e.data.startScript === true) {
// .. Do something
postMessage({"processing" : "done"})
}
}

When the worker sends data back to the main thread, we can capture the data
using the onmessage method attached to the worker constructor:

const myWorker = new Worker("./thread.js")

myWorker.postMessage("Hello World")

myWorker.onmessage = (e) => {

console.log(e.data)
}

Note Web workers can use fetch() just like regular JavaScript code. That
means you can outsource expensive APIs to web workers where necessary.

Web workers also have an onerror method, for capturing any errors that occur
inside your web worker:

const myWorker = new Worker("./thread.js")

myWorker.postMessage("Hello World")

myWorker.onerror = (err, file, line) => {

console.log(`${err} occurred in ${file} on line
${line}`)
}

Restrictions on Web Workers

While web workers give us a useful way to outsource some heavy computation to
a separate thread, they do have some limitations. The three big limitations on Web
Workers are as follows:
As mentioned at the start of the chapter, you cannot run a web worker from
your computer. It needs to be run on a server.
Web workers cannot directly access and update the DOM.
They only have limited access to globalThis or window properties. For example,
they have no access to localStorage, but they do have access to
setTimeout. You can find out all the APIs and window properties available by
console logging globalThis in the worker itself.
 Since web workers have some restrictions on the types of methods that can be
called, it can be useful to console log the globalThis property inside your web
worker thread. You can also find this information online, via websites like
developer.mozilla.org:

console.log(globalThis)

You can see the different methods available to you in web workers by console
logging globalThis. The outcome can be seen in Figure 14-2.

Figure 14-2 Web workers have their own dedicated globalThis, which is different from window. You can
test it out yourself by using console.log(globalThis)

Conclusion
Web workers are a useful way to create multiple threads in your JavaScript code.
While Web APIs and servers also give you ways to create multiple threads, web
workers are a dedicated feature that allows you to create multiple threads
independently.
JavaScript is quite performant because of the event loop and stacks. Therefore,
web workers are only really useful for the most intensive computation functions.
Although you shouldn’t use them everywhere, they can come in very useful in
certain use cases and are thus another tool in your arsenal for creating good
JavaScript code.
Index
A
addEventListener
Animations
Anonymous functions
Application programming interfaces (API)
advantages
canvas
See Canvas
description
HTTP
principles
REST
servers/web pages
Array.prototype
Arrays
duplicates
forEach methods
last element
length
manipulation methods
pop and shift
push and unshift
splice
NodeList
and objects
promises
Arrow functions
Assignment operators
template literals
variable concatenation
Asynchronicity
B
Back-end JavaScript
Bitmap
Block scoping
logical statements
variables
Bubble phase
C
Canvas
additional contexts
animations
API
arguments
DOM
drawing application
element
HTML
interactivity
in JavaScript
Capture phase
Circles
classDetails() function
Classes
and constructor functions
getName method
inheritance via extends
methods
private method fields
static method fields
.close() method
Code conventions
semicolons
spacing
variable and function naming
Code editor
Comparison operators
Conditional operator
Console counting
Console grouping
Console.log method
Console methods
console grouping
console tables
Console object
assertion
tracing
Console tables
Console timing
Constructor functions
arguments
classes
in JavaScript
syntactic sugar
Counter creation
CSSStyleSheets
with JavaScript
See JavaScript
variables
D
Date type
Document object model (DOM)
Drag and drop demo
Drawing shapes
circles
images
rectangles
text
triangles
E
ECMA-262
ECMAScript
Equality
algorithm
object and reference
object comparison
 triple equals sign
Errors in JavaScript
errors
finally statement
try...catch
e variable
Event loop
Event types
description
drag/drop demo
event capturing, targeting, and bubbling
live data
options
pointers, touch, and mouse
F
Falsy types
Fetch function
body
cache
credentials
headers
integrity
keepalive
method
mode
options
referrer
referrerpolicy
File System Web API
Front-end JavaScript
Functions
additional methods
anonymous
arguments
with arrow notation
callback
 calling with context
constructor
CSS
e variable
getters and setters
JavaScript
keyword
myFunction
node_modules
parts
sloppy mode
stack
three dots syntax
unnamed function expressions
G
Generator functions
getComputedStyle
getElementById()
getPropertyValue
Google Chrome
H
Heaps
non-object types
object and reference equality
and stack
History API
history.pushState()
history.replaceState()
HTMLCollection.prototype
HTMLCollections
HTML elements
e variable
events addition
counter creation
event types
modal window creation
 HTMLCollections
manipulation after selection
NodeLists
order of
selection
HTTP
API
benefits
with JSON
endpoints testing
Node.JS web server
RESTful design
routes/endpoints
typical terminology
web pages
I
IEEE 754
If…else statements
Images drawing
IndexedDB API
Interactivity
Iterable data
Iteration
array forEach methods
for loops
objects not iterable
protocol
string
and values
J, K
JavaScript
APIs
assignment operators
back-end server code
changing styles
classes
client-side code
comments
console object
See Console object
constructor functions
CSS properties
CSS variables
data types
errors and exception
See Errors in JavaScript
fetch() method
See also Fetch function
front-end server code
function in
HTML dimensions
HTMLelements
HTML file
inheritance
logical statements
loops
See Loops
map
mathematical constants
new elements
non-object value
nullish coalescing
objects
See Objects
people learning
Python
RAM
server-side code
square brackets
style sheets, HTML
support
tools
type classification
 variables
wrapper objects
writing
back-end code
code editor
front-end code
JavaScript Object Notation
L
Logical AND operator
Logical operators
Logical OR operator
Logical statements
block scoping
comparison operators
conditional operator
if…else statements
logical operators
modification
switch
and variables
while clause
Loops
breaks and continue condition
for statement
labels
while loop
M
Maps
iterating, merging, and accessing
Javascript
keys and values
key’s membership
retrieving properties
serialization
Memory management
Modal window
Mutation
N
Naming functions
NaN
Node.JS project
NodeList.prototype
NodeLists
Non-mutable objects
Nullish coalescing
Number()
Number type
mathematical methods
mathematics
O
Object wrapper
Object equality
Object.keys()
Object.prototype
Objects
See also Console object
accessing
destructuring objects
dot notation vs. square brackets
additional methods
and arrays
classes
getters and setters
mutability
not iterable, default
number wrapper
SetIterator
2D drawing
value
window and document
wrapper
Optionality
P, Q
Payments API
Performance Web API
Postman
Primitive types
Primitive wrappers
Private method fields
Promise.all
Promise.allSettled
Promise.any
Promise.race()
Promises
await keyword
catch and finally methods
constructors
methods
multiple
Promise.all
Promise.allSettled
Promise.any
Promise.race()
Prototype-based programming
inheritance
object shallow and deep copies
[[Prototype]] vs. prototype (and __proto__)
Prototypical inheritance
R
Random access memory (RAM)
RangeError
Rectangles drawing
Representational state transfer (REST) API
S
Selection API
Semicolons
Serialization
Set.has()
Sets
iteration and values
keys and values
membership
merging
modifying
size
someNotification.close()
Splice
Spread syntax
Stacks
event loop
JavaScript
variables
Static methods fields
String()
Strings
data of type
HTTP request
iteration
JavaScript types
object keys
symbol
of text
URI function
while arrays
Super keyword
Switch statements
defaulting to clause
equality
Symbol.iterator
Symbol type
Syntactic sugar
T
Target phase
Template literals
Text drawing
Triangles
Truthy types
U
URL API
V
Variables
arrayLength
block scoping
concatenation
conditional operator
context
CSS
definition
destructuring objects
drag
e variable
function scope
global
logical AND operator
and logical statements
name
non-object type
setting
with const
with let
with var
type string
VeganHotSauce
without values
VeganHotSauce
Visual Studio Code (VS code)
W, X, Y, Z
WeakMaps
Web APIs
History API
JavaScript
notifications
URL API
Web Notification API
Web Storage API
window object
WebGL
WebGPU
Web Notification API
Web Storage API
back-end storage
IndexedDB API
localStorage
sessionStorage
Web workers
computation
JavaScript
messages
restrictions
sending messages
Window
HTML document
HTML elements
object
window.fetch()
Wrappers
to create types
object
primitives