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JavaScript Strings
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Strings are for storing text

Strings are written with quotes

Using Quotes
A JavaScript string is zero or more characters written inside quotes.

Example

let text = "John Doe";

Try it Yourself »

You can use single or double quotes:

Example
let carName1 = "Volvo XC60"; // Double quotes
let carName2 = 'Volvo XC60'; // Single quotes
Try it Yourself »
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Note
Strings created with single or double quotes works the same.

There is no difference between the two.

Quotes Inside Quotes

You can use quotes inside a string, as long as they don't match the quotes surrounding the string:

Example
let answer1 = "It's alright";
let answer2 = "He is called 'Johnny'";
let answer3 = 'He is called "Johnny"';

Try it Yourself »

Template Strings
Templates were introduced with ES6 (JavaScript 2016).

Templates are strings enclosed in backticks (`This is a template string`).

Templates allow single and double quotes inside a string:

Example

let text = `He's often called "Johnny"`;

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Note
Templates are not supported in Internet Explorer.

String Length
To find the length of a string, use the built-in length property:

Example

let text = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";

let length = text.length;

Try it Yourself »

Escape Characters
Because strings must be written within quotes, JavaScript will misunderstand this string:

let text = "We are the so-called "Vikings" from the north.";

The string will be chopped to "We are the so-called ".

To solve this problem, you can use an backslash escape character.

The backslash escape character ( \ ) turns special characters into string characters:

Code Result Description

\' Tutorials 
'
Exercises  Services 
Single quote
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\" " Double quote
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\\ \ Backslash

Examples
\" inserts a double quote in a string:

let text = "We are the so-called \"Vikings\" from the north.";

Try it Yourself »

\' inserts a single quote in a string:

let text= 'It\'s alright.';

Try it Yourself »

\\ inserts a backslash in a string:

let text = "The character \\ is called backslash.";

Try it Yourself »

Six other escape sequences are valid in JavaScript:

Code Result

\b Backspace

\f Form Feed

\n New Line

\r Carriage Return

\t Horizontal Tabulator

\v Vertical Tabulator
NoteTutorials 
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HTML CSS characters

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above were PYTHON
originally JAVA
designed to PHP HOW
control typewriters, TO
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Breaking Long Lines

For readability, programmers often like to avoid long code lines.

A safe way to break up a statement is after an operator:

Example
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML =
"Hello Dolly!";

Try it Yourself »

A safe way to break up a string is by using string addition:

Example
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = "Hello " +
"Dolly!";

Try it Yourself »

Template Strings
Templates were introduced with ES6 (JavaScript 2016).

Templates are strings enclosed in backticks (`This is a template string`).

 Templates allow multiline strings:
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Example
let text =
`The quick
brown fox
jumps over
the lazy dog`;

Try it Yourself »

Note
Templates are not supported in Internet Explorer.

JavaScript Strings as Objects

Normally, JavaScript strings are primitive values, created from literals:

let x = "John";

But strings can also be defined as objects with the keyword new :

let y = new String("John");

Example
let x = "John";
let y = new String("John");
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Do not create Strings objects.

The new keyword complicates the code and slows down execution speed.

String objects can produce unexpected results:

When using the == operator, x and y are equal:

let x = "John";
let y = new String("John");

Try it Yourself »

When using the === operator, x and y are not equal:

let x = "John";
let y = new String("John");

Try it Yourself »

Note the difference between (x==y) and (x===y) .

(x == y) true or false?

let x = new String("John");

let y = new String("John");

Try it Yourself »

(x ===Tutorials Exercises 
y) trueor false? Services   Sign Up Log in

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let x = new String("John");
let y = new String("John");

Try it Yourself »

Comparing two JavaScript objects always returns false.

Complete String Reference

For a complete String reference, go to our:

Complete JavaScript String Reference.

The reference contains descriptions and examples of all string properties and methods.

Test Yourself With Exercises

Exercise:
Use the length property to alert the length of txt .

let txt = "Hello World!";

let x = ;
alert(x);

Submit Answer »
 Start the Exercise
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