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Chapter 8
Values, Variables, and Literals

This chapter discusses values that JavaScript recognizes and describes the fundamental building blocks of JavaScript expressions: variables and literals.

Values

JavaScript recognizes the following types of values:

NOTE: Because JavaScript is case sensitive, null is not the same as Null, NULL, or any other variant.
This relatively small set of types of values, or data types, enables you to perform useful functions with your applications. There is no explicit distinction between integer and real-valued numbers. Nor is there an explicit date data type in Navigator. However, you can use the Date object and its methods to handle dates.

Objects and functions are the other fundamental elements in the language. You can think of objects as named containers for values, and functions as procedures that your application can perform.

Data Type Conversion

JavaScript is a loosely typed language. That means you do not have to specify the data type of a variable when you declare it, and data types are converted automatically as needed during script execution. So, for example, you could define a variable as follows:

var answer = 42
And later, you could assign the same variable a string value, for example,

answer = "Thanks for all the fish..."
Because JavaScript is loosely typed, this assignment does not cause an error message.

In expressions involving numeric and string values, JavaScript converts the numeric values to strings. For example, consider the following statements:

x = "The answer is " + 42
y = 42 + " is the answer."
The first statement returns the string "The answer is 42." The second statement returns the string "42 is the answer."

Variables

You use variables as symbolic names for values in your application. You give variables names by which you refer to them and which must conform to certain rules.

A JavaScript identifier, or name, must start with a letter or underscore ("_"); subsequent characters can also be digits (0-9). Because JavaScript is case sensitive, letters include the characters "A" through "Z" (uppercase) and the characters "a" through "z" (lowercase).

Some examples of legal names are Number_hits, temp99, and _name.

Variable Scope

You can declare a variable in two ways:

When you set a variable identifier by assignment outside of a function, it is called a global variable, because it is available everywhere in the current document. When you declare a variable within a function, it is called a local variable, because it is available only within the function.

Using var to declare a global variable is optional. However, you must use var to declare a variable inside a function.

You can access global variables declared in one window or frame from another window or frame by specifying the window or frame name. For example, if a variable called phoneNumber is declared in a FRAMESET document, you can refer to this variable from a child frame as parent.phoneNumber.

For information on using variables across frames and windows, see Chapter 4, "Using Windows and Frames."

Literals

You use literals to represent values in JavaScript. These are fixed values, not variables, that you literally provide in your script.

Integers

Integers can be expressed in decimal (base 10), hexadecimal (base 16), and octal (base 8). A decimal integer literal consists of a sequence of digits without a leading 0 (zero). A leading 0 (zero) on an integer literal indicates it is in octal; a leading 0x (or 0X) indicates hexadecimal. Hexadecimal integers can include digits (0-9) and the letters a-f and A-F. Octal integers can include only the digits 0-7.

Some examples of integer literals are: 42 0xFFF, and -345.

Floating-Point Literals

A floating-point literal can have the following parts:

The exponent part is an "e" or "E" followed by an integer, which can be signed (preceded by "+" or "-"). A floating-point literal must have at least one digit and either a decimal point or "e" (or "E").

Some examples of floating-point literals are 3.1415, -3.1E12, .1e12, and 2E-12

Boolean Literals

The Boolean type has two literal values: true and false.

String Literals

A string literal is zero or more characters enclosed in double (") or single (') quotation marks. A string must be delimited by quotation marks of the same type; that is, either both single quotation marks or both double quotation marks. The following are examples of string literals:

In addition to ordinary characters, you can also include special characters in strings, as shown in the last example in the preceding list. Table 8.1 lists the special characters that you can use in JavaScript strings.

Table 8.1 JavaScript special characters
Character Meaning
\b
backspace

\f
form feed

\n
new line

\r
carriage return

\t
tab

\\
backslash character

Escaping Characters

For characters not listed in Table 8.1, a preceding backslash is ignored, with the exception of a quotation mark and the backslash character itself.

You can insert a quotation mark inside a string by preceding it with a backslash. This is known as escaping the quotation mark. For example,

var quote = "He read \"The Cremation of Sam McGee\" by R.W. Service."
document.write(quote)
The result of this would be

He read "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by R.W. Service.
To include a literal backslash inside a string, you must escape the backslash character. For example, to assign the file path c:\temp to a string, use the following:

var home = "c:\\temp"

Array Literals

As discussed in Chapter 11, "Predefined Core Objects and Functions," JavaScript provides array objects. In earlier versions of Navigator, you could create arrays only using the array constructor function. In Navigator 4.0, however, you can also create arrays using literal notation. The syntax for creating a literal array is:

arrayName = [element0, element1, ..., elementN]
where arrayName is the name of the new array and each elementI is a value for on of the array's elements. When you create an array using literal notation, it is initialized with the specified values as its elements, and its length is set to the number of arguments.

You do not have to specify all elements in the new array. If you put 2 commas in a row, the array is created with spaces for the unspecified elements, as shown in the second example below.

If an array is created using literal notation in a top-level script, JavaScript interprets the object each time it evaluates the expression containing the array literal. In addition, a literal used in a function is created each time the function is called.

The following example creates the coffees array with three elements and a length of three:

coffees = ["French Roast", "Columbian", "Kona"]
The following example creates the fish array, giving values to two elements and having one empty element:

fish = ["Lion", , "Surgeon"]
With this expression fish[0] is "Lion", fish[2] is "Surgeon", and fish[1] is undefined.

Object Literals

In earlier versions of Navigator, you could create objects only using their constructor functions or using a function supplied by some other object for that purpose. In Navigator 4.0, however, you can also create objects using literal notation. The syntax for creating a literal object is:

objectName = {property1:value1, property2:value2,..., propertyN:valueN}
where objectName is the name of the new object, each propertyI is an identifier (either a name, a number, or a string literal), and each valueI is an expression whose value is assigned to the propertyI.

If an object is created using literal notation in a top-level script, JavaScript interprets the object each time it evaluates the expression containing the object literal. In addition, a literal used in a function is created each time the function is called.

Assume you have the following statement:

if (cond) x = {hi:"there"}
In this case, JavaScript makes the literal object and assigns it to the variable x if and only if the expression cond is true.

The following example creates myHonda with three properties. Note that the engine property is also an object with its own properties.

myHonda = {color:"red",wheels:4,engine:{cylinders:4,size:2.2}}

Regular Expression Literals

Navigator 4.0 introduces regular expressions for doing pattern matching in strings. Regular expressions can be constructed using a literal notation. For more information, see "Regular Expressions".


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Last Updated: 10/31/97 10:37:34


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