JavaScript

JavaScript (JS) is a lightweight, interpreted, or just-in-time compiled programming language with first-class functions. While it is most well-known as the scripting language for Web pages, many non-browser environments also use it, such as Node.js, Apache CouchDB and Adobe Acrobat. JavaScript is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm, single-threaded, dynamic language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and declarative (e.g. functional programming) styles. Read more about JavaScript.

This section is dedicated to the JavaScript language itself, and not the parts that are specific to Web pages or other host environments. For information about API specifics to Web pages, please see Web APIs and DOM.

The standard for JavaScript is ECMAScript. As of 2012, all modern browsers fully support ECMAScript 5.1. Older browsers support at least ECMAScript 3. On June 17, 2015, ECMA International published the sixth major version of ECMAScript, which is officially called ECMAScript 2015, and was initially referred to as ECMAScript 6 or ES6. Since then, ECMAScript standards are on yearly release cycles. This documentation refers to the latest draft version, which is currently ECMAScript 2020.

Do not confuse JavaScript with the Java programming language. Both "Java" and "JavaScript" are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle in the U.S. and other countries. However, the two programming languages have a very different syntax, semantic, and use.

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Tutorials

Learn how to program in JavaScript with guides and tutorials.

For complete beginners

Head over to our Learning Area JavaScript topic if you want to learn JavaScript but have no previous experience of JavaScript or programming. The complete modules available there are as follows:

JavaScript first steps
Answers some fundamental questions such as "what is JavaScript?", "what does it look like?", and "what can it do?", along with discussing key JavaScript features such as variables, strings, numbers, and arrays.
JavaScript building blocks
Continues our coverage of JavaScript's key fundamental features, turning our attention to commonly-encountered types of code blocks such as conditional statements, loops, functions, and events.
Introducing JavaScript objects
The object-oriented nature of JavaScript is important to understand if you want to go further with your knowledge of the language and write more efficient code, therefore we've provided this module to help you.
Asynchronous JavaScript
Discusses asynchronous JavaScript, why it is important, and how it can be used to effectively handle potential blocking operations such as fetching resources from a server.
Client-side web APIs
Explores what APIs are, and how to use some of the most common APIs you'll come across often in your development work.

JavaScript guide

JavaScript Guide
A much more detailed guide to the JavaScript language, aimed at those with previous programming experience either in JavaScript or another language.

Intermediate

Understanding client-side JavaScript frameworks
JavaScript frameworks are an essential part of modern front-end web development, providing developers with proven tools for building scalable, interactive web applications. This module gives you some fundamental background knowledge about how client-side frameworks work and how they fit into your toolset, before moving on to tutorial series covering some of today's most popular ones.
A re-introduction to JavaScript
An overview for those who think they know about JavaScript.
JavaScript data structures
Overview of available data structures in JavaScript.
Equality comparisons and sameness
JavaScript provides three different value-comparison operations: strict equality using ===, loose equality using ==, and the Object.is() method.
Closures

A closure is the combination of a function and the lexical environment within which that function was declared.

Advanced

Inheritance and the prototype chain
Explanation of the widely misunderstood and under-estimated prototype-based inheritance.
Strict mode
Strict mode defines that you can not use any variable before initializing it. It is a restricted variant of ECMAScript 5, for faster performance and easier debugging.
JavaScript typed arrays
JavaScript typed arrays provide a mechanism for accessing raw binary data.
Memory Management
Memory life cycle and garbage collection in JavaScript.
Concurrency model and Event Loop
JavaScript has a concurrency model based on an "event loop".

Reference

Browse the complete JavaScript reference documentation.

Standard objects
Get to know standard built-in objects Array, Boolean, Date, Error, Function, JSON, Math, Number, Object, RegExp, String, Map, Set, WeakMap, WeakSet, and others.
Expressions and operators
Learn more about the behavior of JavaScript's operators instanceof, typeof, new, this, the operator precedence, and more.
Statements and declarations
Learn how do-while, for-in, for-of, try-catch, let, var, const, if-else, switch, and more JavaScript statements and keywords work.
Functions
Learn how to work with JavaScript's functions to develop your applications.

Tools & resources

Helpful tools for writing and debugging your JavaScript code.

Firefox Developer Tools
Web Console, JavaScript Profiler, Debugger, and more.
JavaScript Shells
A JavaScript shell allows you to quickly test snippets of JavaScript code.
Learn JavaScript
An excellent resource for aspiring web developers — Learn JavaScript in an interactive environment, with short lessons and interactive tests, guided by automated assessment. The first 40 lessons are free, and the complete course is available for a small one-time payment.
TogetherJS
Collaboration made easy. By adding TogetherJS to your site, your users can help each other out on a website in real-time!
Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow questions tagged with "JavaScript".
JavaScript versions and release notes
Browse JavaScript's feature history and implementation status.
JSFiddle
Edit JavaScript, CSS, HTML and get live results. Use external resources and collaborate with your team online.
Plunker
Plunker is an online community for creating, collaborating on and sharing your web development ideas. Edit your JavaScript, CSS, HTML files and get live results and file structure.
JSBin

JS Bin is an open-source collaborative web development debugging tool.

Codepen

Codepen is another collaborative web development tool used as a live result playground.

StackBlitz

StackBlitz is another online playground/debugging tool, which can host and deploy full-stack applications using React, Angular, etc.