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Part 3.4Types in JavaScript

Part 3.4Types in JavaScript

As mentioned previously in this tutorial, JavaScript is a weakly and loosely typed programming language (or dynamic language). This means that variables do not need to have a type assigned to them and the compiler (or the runtime) will assign a type to the variable based on the value.

But since it is also loosely typed, a variable can have it's type changed after it has been declared.

Types in JavaScript

JavaScript has six primitive types. A primitive type is a low level, non-object type. What this means is that the value has no methods. It is simply a value.

The six primitive types are:

  • String
  • Number
  • Boolean
  • Null
  • Undefined
  • Symbol

JavaScript also features one final type which will be covered later on in the tutorial. However, for completeness-sake it is known as the object type.

Take the following code sample:

JavaScript
var x = "Hello world"; //String
var x = 50; //Number
var x = true; //Boolean

In this example a variable x has been declared three times with three different values. Crucially however, the values all differ in type. The first value is a string and therefore the String type is assigned, the second value is a numeric value and therefore the Number type is assigned and the thrid value is a boolean value (true or false) and therefore has the Boolean type assigned to it.

Despite the difference in types, it is possible to assign a value of a different type to the same variable because the language is loosely typed.

Null

Null is a special type that means that the value of the variable is actually null too. A null value is a value that contains nothing, the value is empty or has no meaning. In JavaScript it can be assigned just like a normal value:

JavaScript
var x = null; //Null

Undefined

The Undefined type is another special type in JavaScript. The Undefined type simply stores a value that suggests the value has not been assigned a correct value.

JavaScript
var x = undefined; //Undefined

There is more on the undefined value on Wikipedia.

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