Book Image

JavaScript from Beginner to Professional

By : Laurence Lars Svekis, Maaike van Putten, Codestars By Rob Percival
4 (5)
Book Image

JavaScript from Beginner to Professional

4 (5)
By: Laurence Lars Svekis, Maaike van Putten, Codestars By Rob Percival

Overview of this book

This book demonstrates the capabilities of JavaScript for web application development by combining theoretical learning with code exercises and fun projects that you can challenge yourself with. The guiding principle of the book is to show how straightforward JavaScript techniques can be used to make web apps ranging from dynamic websites to simple browser-based games. JavaScript from Beginner to Professional focuses on key programming concepts and Document Object Model manipulations that are used to solve common problems in professional web applications. These include data validation, manipulating the appearance of web pages, working with asynchronous and concurrent code. The book uses project-based learning to provide context for the theoretical components in a series of code examples that can be used as modules of an application, such as input validators, games, and simple animations. This will be supplemented with a brief crash course on HTML and CSS to illustrate how JavaScript components fit into a complete web application. As you learn the concepts, you can try them in your own editor or browser console to get a solid understanding of how they work and what they do. By the end of this JavaScript book, you will feel confident writing core JavaScript code and be equipped to progress to more advanced libraries, frameworks, and environments such as React, Angular, and Node.js.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
16
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17
Index

Analyzing and modifying data types

We have seen the primitive data types. There are some built-in JavaScript methods that will help us deal with common problems related to primitives. Built-in methods are pieces of logic that can be used without having to write JavaScript logic yourself.

We've seen one built-in method already: console.log().

There are many of these built-in methods, and the ones you will be meeting in this chapter are just the first few you will encounter.

Working out the type of a variable

Especially with null and undefined, it can be hard to determine what kind of data type you are dealing with. Let's have a look at typeof. This returns the type of the variable. You can check the type of a variable by entering typeof, then either a space followed by the variable in question, or the variable in question in brackets:

testVariable = 1;
variableTypeTest1 = typeof testVariable;
variableTypeTest2 = typeof(testVariable);
console...