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JS Tutorial

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JS Forms

JS Forms Forms API

JS Objects

Object Definitions Object Properties Object Methods Object Accessors Object Constructors Object Prototypes Object ECMAScript 5

JS Functions

Function Definitions Function Parameters Function Invocation Function Call Function Apply Function Closures

JS HTML DOM

DOM Intro DOM Methods DOM Document DOM Elements DOM HTML DOM CSS DOM Animations DOM Events DOM Event Listener DOM Navigation DOM Nodes DOM Collections DOM Node Lists

JS Browser BOM

JS Window JS Screen JS Location JS History JS Navigator JS Popup Alert JS Timing JS Cookies

JS AJAX

AJAX Intro AJAX XMLHttp AJAX Request AJAX Response AJAX XML File AJAX PHP AJAX ASP AJAX Database AJAX Applications AJAX Examples

JS JSON

JSON Intro JSON Syntax JSON vs XML JSON Data Types JSON Parse JSON Stringify JSON Objects JSON Arrays JSON PHP JSON HTML JSON JSONP

JS vs jQuery

jQuery Selectors jQuery HTML jQuery CSS jQuery DOM

JS Examples

JS Examples JS HTML DOM JS HTML Input JS HTML Objects JS HTML Events JS Browser JS Exercises JS Quiz JS Certificate

JS References

JavaScript Objects HTML DOM Objects


JavaScript Statements


Example

var x, y, z;    // Statement 1
x = 5;          // Statement 2
y = 6;          // Statement 3
z = x + y;      // Statement 4
Try it Yourself »

JavaScript Programs

A computer program is a list of "instructions" to be "executed" by a computer.

In a programming language, these programming instructions are called statements.

A JavaScript program is a list of programming statements.

In HTML, JavaScript programs are executed by the web browser.


JavaScript Statements

JavaScript statements are composed of:

Values, Operators, Expressions, Keywords, and Comments.

This statement tells the browser to write "Hello Dolly." inside an HTML element with id="demo":

Example

document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = "Hello Dolly.";
Try it Yourself »

Most JavaScript programs contain many JavaScript statements.

The statements are executed, one by one, in the same order as they are written.

JavaScript programs (and JavaScript statements) are often called JavaScript code.


Semicolons ;

Semicolons separate JavaScript statements.

Add a semicolon at the end of each executable statement:

var a, b, c;     // Declare 3 variables
a = 5;           // Assign the value 5 to a
b = 6;           // Assign the value 6 to b
c = a + b;       // Assign the sum of a and b to c
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When separated by semicolons, multiple statements on one line are allowed:

a = 5; b = 6; c = a + b;
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On the web, you might see examples without semicolons.
Ending statements with semicolon is not required, but highly recommended.



JavaScript White Space

JavaScript ignores multiple spaces. You can add white space to your script to make it more readable.

The following lines are equivalent:

var person = "Hege";
var person="Hege";

A good practice is to put spaces around operators ( = + - * / ):

var x = y + z;

JavaScript Line Length and Line Breaks

For best readability, programmers often like to avoid code lines longer than 80 characters.

If a JavaScript statement does not fit on one line, the best place to break it is after an operator:

Example

document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML =
"Hello Dolly!";
Try it Yourself »

JavaScript Code Blocks

JavaScript statements can be grouped together in code blocks, inside curly brackets {...}.

The purpose of code blocks is to define statements to be executed together.

One place you will find statements grouped together in blocks, is in JavaScript functions:

Example

function myFunction() {
  document.getElementById("demo1").innerHTML = "Hello Dolly!";
  document.getElementById("demo2").innerHTML = "How are you?";
}
Try it Yourself »

In this tutorial we use 2 spaces of indentation for code blocks.
You will learn more about functions later in this tutorial.


JavaScript Keywords

JavaScript statements often start with a keyword to identify the JavaScript action to be performed.

Visit our Reserved Words reference to view a full list of JavaScript keywords.

Here is a list of some of the keywords you will learn about in this tutorial:

Keyword Description
break Terminates a switch or a loop
continue Jumps out of a loop and starts at the top
debugger Stops the execution of JavaScript, and calls (if available) the debugging function
do ... while Executes a block of statements, and repeats the block, while a condition is true
for Marks a block of statements to be executed, as long as a condition is true
function Declares a function
if ... else Marks a block of statements to be executed, depending on a condition
return Exits a function
switch Marks a block of statements to be executed, depending on different cases
try ... catch Implements error handling to a block of statements
var Declares a variable

JavaScript keywords are reserved words. Reserved words cannot be used as names for variables.