i About the Tutorial JavaScript is a lightweight, interpreted programming language. It is designed for creating network-centric applications. It is complimentary to and integrated with Java. JavaScript is very easy to implement because it is integrated with HTML. It is open and cross-platform. Audience This tutorial has been prepared for JavaScript beginners to help them understand the basic functionality of JavaScript to build dynamic web pages and web applications. Prerequisites For this tutorial, it is assumed that the reader have a prior knowledge of HTML coding. It would help if the reader had some prior exposure to object-oriented programming concepts and a general idea on creating online applications. Copyright and Disclaimer  Copyright 2015 by Tutorials Point (I) Pvt. Ltd. All the content and graphics published in this e-book are the property of Tutorials Point (I) Pvt. Ltd. The user of this e-book is prohibited to reuse, retain, copy, distribute or republish any contents or a part of contents of this e-book in any manner without written consent of the publisher. We strive to update the contents of our website and tutorials as timely and as precisely as possible, however, the contents may contain inaccuracies or errors. Tutorials Point (I) Pvt. Ltd. provides no guarantee regarding the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of our website or its contents including this tutorial. If you discover any errors on our website or in this tutorial, please notify us at contact@tutorialspoint.com ii Table of Contents About the Tutorial ............................................................................................................................................. Audience ........................................................................................................................................................... i Prerequisites ..................................................................................................................................................... i Copyright and Disclaimer ................................................................................................................................. i Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................ ii PART 1: JAVASCRIPT BASICS ........................................................................................................ 1 1. JAVASCRIPT – Overview ............................................................................................................................ 2 What is JavaScript? .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Client-Side JavaScript....................................................................................................................................... 2 Advantages of JavaScript ................................................................................................................................. 3 Limitations of JavaScript .................................................................................................................................. 3 JavaScript Development Tools......................................................................................................................... 3 Where is JavaScript Today? ............................................................................................................................. 4 2. JAVASCRIPT – Syntax ................................................................................................................................ 5 Your First JavaScript Code ............................................................................................................................... 5 Whitespace and Line Breaks ............................................................................................................................ 6 Semicolons are Optional.................................................................................................................................. 6 Case Sensitivity ................................................................................................................................................ 7 Comments in JavaScript .................................................................................................................................. 7 3. JAVASCRIPT – Enabling ............................................................................................................................. 9 JavaScript in Internet Explorer ........................................................................................................................ 9 JavaScript in Firefox ......................................................................................................................................... 9 JavaScript in Chrome ..................................................................................................................................... 10 JavaScript in Opera ........................................................................................................................................ 10 Warning for Non-JavaScript Browsers ........................................................................................................... 10 4. JAVASCRIPT – Placement ........................................................................................................................ 12 JavaScript in <head>...</head> Section ......................................................................................................... 12 JavaScript in <body>...</body> Section ......................................................................................................... 13 JavaScript in <body> and <head> Sections .................................................................................................... 13 JavaScript in External File .............................................................................................................................. 14 5. JAVASCRIPT – Variables .......................................................................................................................... 16 JavaScript Datatypes...................................................................................................................................... 16 JavaScript Variables ....................................................................................................................................... 16 JavaScript Variable Scope .............................................................................................................................. 17 JavaScript Variable Names ............................................................................................................................ 18 JavaScript Reserved Words ........................................................................................................................... 19 6. JAVASCRIPT – Operators ......................................................................................................................... 20 What is an Operator? .................................................................................................................................... 20 Arithmetic Operators..................................................................................................................................... 20 Comparison Operators .................................................................................................................................. 23 Logical Operators ........................................................................................................................................... 26 iii Bitwise Operators .......................................................................................................................................... 28 Assignment Operators ................................................................................................................................... 31 Miscellaneous Operators ............................................................................................................................... 34 7. JAVASCRIPT – If-Else ............................................................................................................................... 38 Flow Chart of if-else ....................................................................................................................................... 38 if Statement ................................................................................................................................................... 39 if...else Statement ......................................................................................................................................... 40 if...else if... Statement ................................................................................................................................... 41 8. JAVASCRIPT – Switch-Case ...................................................................................................................... 43 Flow Chart ..................................................................................................................................................... 43 9. JAVASCRIPT – While Loop ....................................................................................................................... 47 The while Loop .............................................................................................................................................. 47 The do...while Loop ....................................................................................................................................... 49 10. JAVASCRIPT – For Loop ........................................................................................................................... 52 The for Loop .................................................................................................................................................. 52 11. JAVASCRIPT – For-in Loop ....................................................................................................................... 55 12. JAVASCRIPT – Loop Control ..................................................................................................................... 57 The break Statement ..................................................................................................................................... 57 The continue Statement ................................................................................................................................ 59 Using Labels to Control the Flow ................................................................................................................... 60 13. JAVASCRIPT – Functions .......................................................................................................................... 64 Function Definition ........................................................................................................................................ 64 Calling a Function .......................................................................................................................................... 65 Function Parameters ..................................................................................................................................... 66 The return Statement .................................................................................................................................... 67 Nested Functions ........................................................................................................................................... 68 Function () Constructor ................................................................................................................................. 70 Function Literals ............................................................................................................................................ 71 14. JAVASCRIPT – Events............................................................................................................................... 74 What is an Event? .......................................................................................................................................... 74 onclick Event Type ......................................................................................................................................... 74 onsubmit Event Type ..................................................................................................................................... 75 onmouseover and onmouseout .................................................................................................................... 76 HTML 5 Standard Events ............................................................................................................................... 77 15. JAVASCRIPT – Cookies ............................................................................................................................. 82 What are Cookies?......................................................................................................................................... 82 How It Works? ............................................................................................................................................... 82 Storing Cookies .............................................................................................................................................. 83 Reading Cookies ............................................................................................................................................ 84 Setting Cookies Expiry Date ........................................................................................................................... 86 Deleting a Cookie ........................................................................................................................................... 87 iv 16. JAVASCRIPT – Page Redirect ................................................................................................................... 89 What is Page Redirection? ............................................................................................................................. 89 JavaScript Page Refresh ................................................................................................................................. 89 Auto Refresh .................................................................................................................................................. 89 How Page Re-direction Works? ..................................................................................................................... 90 17. JAVASCRIPT – Dialog Box ........................................................................................................................ 94 Alert Dialog Box ............................................................................................................................................. 94 Confirmation Dialog Box ................................................................................................................................ 95 Prompt Dialog Box ......................................................................................................................................... 96 18. JAVASCRIPT – Void Keyword ................................................................................................................... 98 19. JAVASCRIPT – Page Printing .................................................................................................................. 101 How to Print a Page? ................................................................................................................................... 102 PART 2: JAVASCRIPT OBJECTS ................................................................................................. 103 20. JAVASCRIPT – Objects ........................................................................................................................... 105 Object Properties......................................................................................................................................... 105 Object Methods ........................................................................................................................................... 105 User-Defined Objects .................................................................................................................................. 106 Defining Methods for an Object .................................................................................................................. 108 The ‘with’ Keyword ...................................................................................................................................... 109 21. JAVASCRIPT – Number .......................................................................................................................... 112 Number Properties ...................................................................................................................................... 112 MAX_VALUE ................................................................................................................................................ 113 MIN_VALUE ................................................................................................................................................. 114 NaN .............................................................................................................................................................. 115 NEGATIVE_INFINITY ..................................................................................................................................... 117 POSITIVE_INFINITY ...................................................................................................................................... 118 Prototype ..................................................................................................................................................... 119 constructor .................................................................................................................................................. 121 Number Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 121 toExponential () ........................................................................................................................................... 122 toFixed () ...................................................................................................................................................... 124 toLocaleString () .......................................................................................................................................... 125 toPrecision () ............................................................................................................................................... 126 toString () ..................................................................................................................................................... 127 valueOf () ..................................................................................................................................................... 128 22. JAVASCRIPT – Boolean .......................................................................................................................... 130 Boolean Properties ...................................................................................................................................... 130 constructor () ............................................................................................................................................... 130 Prototype ..................................................................................................................................................... 131 Boolean Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 132 toSource () ................................................................................................................................................... 133 toString () ..................................................................................................................................................... 134 valueOf () ..................................................................................................................................................... 135 v 23. JAVASCRIPT – String .............................................................................................................................. 137 String Properties .......................................................................................................................................... 137 constructor .................................................................................................................................................. 137 Length .......................................................................................................................................................... 138 Prototype ..................................................................................................................................................... 139 String Methods ............................................................................................................................................ 140 charAt() ........................................................................................................................................................ 142 charCodeAt () ............................................................................................................................................... 143 contact () ..................................................................................................................................................... 144 indexOf () ..................................................................................................................................................... 145 lastIndexOf () ............................................................................................................................................... 147 localeCompare () ......................................................................................................................................... 148 match () ....................................................................................................................................................... 149 replace () ...................................................................................................................................................... 150 Search () ....................................................................................................................................................... 153 slice () .......................................................................................................................................................... 154 split () ........................................................................................................................................................... 155 substr ()........................................................................................................................................................ 156 substring () ................................................................................................................................................... 157 toLocaleLowerCase() ................................................................................................................................... 158 toLocaleUppereCase () ................................................................................................................................ 159 toLowerCase () ............................................................................................................................................. 160 toString () ..................................................................................................................................................... 161 toUpperCase () ............................................................................................................................................ 162 valueOf () ..................................................................................................................................................... 163 String HTML Wrappers ................................................................................................................................ 164 anchor() ....................................................................................................................................................... 165 big().............................................................................................................................................................. 166 blink () .......................................................................................................................................................... 167 bold () .......................................................................................................................................................... 168 fixed () .......................................................................................................................................................... 168 fontColor () .................................................................................................................................................. 169 fontsize () ..................................................................................................................................................... 170 italics () ........................................................................................................................................................ 171 link () ............................................................................................................................................................ 172 small () ......................................................................................................................................................... 173 strike () ......................................................................................................................................................... 174 sub() ............................................................................................................................................................. 175 sup () ............................................................................................................................................................ 176 24. JAVASCRIPT – Arrays ............................................................................................................................. 178 Array Properties .......................................................................................................................................... 178 constructor .................................................................................................................................................. 179 length ........................................................................................................................................................... 180 Prototype ..................................................................................................................................................... 181 Array Methods ............................................................................................................................................. 182 concat () ....................................................................................................................................................... 184 every () ......................................................................................................................................................... 185 filter () .......................................................................................................................................................... 187 forEach () ..................................................................................................................................................... 190 vi indexOf () ..................................................................................................................................................... 192 join () ........................................................................................................................................................... 195 lastIndexOf () ............................................................................................................................................... 196 map () .......................................................................................................................................................... 199 pop () ........................................................................................................................................................... 201 push () .......................................................................................................................................................... 202 reduce () ...................................................................................................................................................... 204 reduceRight () .............................................................................................................................................. 207 reverse () ..................................................................................................................................................... 211 shift () .......................................................................................................................................................... 212 slice () .......................................................................................................................................................... 213 some () ......................................................................................................................................................... 214 sort () ........................................................................................................................................................... 216 splice () ........................................................................................................................................................ 217 toString () ..................................................................................................................................................... 219 unshift () ...................................................................................................................................................... 220 25. JAVASCRIPT – Date ............................................................................................................................... 222 Date Properties............................................................................................................................................ 223 constructor .................................................................................................................................................. 223 Prototype ..................................................................................................................................................... 224 Date Methods .............................................................................................................................................. 226 Date() ........................................................................................................................................................... 229 getDate() ...................................................................................................................................................... 229 getDay() ....................................................................................................................................................... 230 getFullYear() ................................................................................................................................................ 231 getHours() .................................................................................................................................................... 232 getMilliseconds() ......................................................................................................................................... 233 getMinutes () ............................................................................................................................................... 234 getMonth () ................................................................................................................................................. 235 getSeconds () ............................................................................................................................................... 236 getTime () .................................................................................................................................................... 236 getTimezoneOffset () ................................................................................................................................... 237 getUTCDate () .............................................................................................................................................. 238 getUTCDay () ................................................................................................................................................ 239 getUTCFullYear () ......................................................................................................................................... 240 getUTCHours () ............................................................................................................................................ 241 getUTCMilliseconds () .................................................................................................................................. 242 getUTCMinutes () ........................................................................................................................................ 243 getUTCMonth () ........................................................................................................................................... 243 getUTCSeconds () ........................................................................................................................................ 244 getYear () ..................................................................................................................................................... 245 setDate () ..................................................................................................................................................... 246 setFullYear () ................................................................................................................................................ 247 setHours () ................................................................................................................................................... 248 setMilliseconds () ......................................................................................................................................... 249 setMinutes () ............................................................................................................................................... 250 setMonth () .................................................................................................................................................. 251 setSeconds () ............................................................................................................................................... 252 setTime () ..................................................................................................................................................... 254 vii setUTCDate () .............................................................................................................................................. 254 setUTCFullYear () ......................................................................................................................................... 255 setUTCHours () ............................................................................................................................................ 257 setUTCMilliseconds () .................................................................................................................................. 258 setUTCMinutes () ......................................................................................................................................... 259 setUTC Month () .......................................................................................................................................... 260 setUTCSeconds () ......................................................................................................................................... 261 setYear () ..................................................................................................................................................... 262 toDateString () ............................................................................................................................................. 263 toGMTString () ............................................................................................................................................. 264 toLocaleDateString () ................................................................................................................................... 265 toLocaleDateString () ................................................................................................................................... 266 toLocaleFormat () ........................................................................................................................................ 266 toLocaleString () .......................................................................................................................................... 267 toLocaleTimeSring () .................................................................................................................................... 268 toSource () ................................................................................................................................................... 269 toString () ..................................................................................................................................................... 270 toTimeString () ............................................................................................................................................. 271 toUTCString () .............................................................................................................................................. 272 valeOf () ....................................................................................................................................................... 273 Date Static Methods .................................................................................................................................... 274 Date.parse ( ) ............................................................................................................................................... 274 Date.UTC ( ) ................................................................................................................................................. 275 26. JAVASCRIPT – Math .............................................................................................................................. 277 Math Properties .......................................................................................................................................... 277 Math-E ......................................................................................................................................................... 278 Math-LN2 ..................................................................................................................................................... 279 Math-LN10 ................................................................................................................................................... 279 Math-LOG2E ................................................................................................................................................ 280 Math-LOG10E .............................................................................................................................................. 281 Math-PI ........................................................................................................................................................ 282 Math-SQRT1_2 ............................................................................................................................................ 283 Math-SQRT2 ................................................................................................................................................ 283 Math Methods ............................................................................................................................................. 284 abs () ............................................................................................................................................................ 285 acos () .......................................................................................................................................................... 287 asin ( ) .......................................................................................................................................................... 288 atan ( ) ......................................................................................................................................................... 289 atan2 ( ) ....................................................................................................................................................... 290 ceil ( ) ........................................................................................................................................................... 292 cos ( ) ........................................................................................................................................................... 293 exp ( ) ........................................................................................................................................................... 295 floor ( ) ......................................................................................................................................................... 296 log ( ) ............................................................................................................................................................ 297 max ( ) .......................................................................................................................................................... 298 min ( ) .......................................................................................................................................................... 300 pow ( ) .......................................................................................................................................................... 301 random ( ) .................................................................................................................................................... 302 round ( ) ....................................................................................................................................................... 304 viii sin ( ) ............................................................................................................................................................ 305 sqrt ( ) .......................................................................................................................................................... 306 tan ( ) ........................................................................................................................................................... 307 toSource ( ) .................................................................................................................................................. 309 27. JAVASCRIPT – RegExp ........................................................................................................................... 310 Brackets ....................................................................................................................................................... 310 Quantifiers ................................................................................................................................................... 311 Literal Characters......................................................................................................................................... 312 Metacharacters ........................................................................................................................................... 313 Modifiers ..................................................................................................................................................... 313 RegExp Properties ....................................................................................................................................... 314 constructor .................................................................................................................................................. 314 global ........................................................................................................................................................... 315 ignoreCase ................................................................................................................................................... 316 lastIndex ...................................................................................................................................................... 318 multiline....................................................................................................................................................... 319 source .......................................................................................................................................................... 320 RegExp Methods .......................................................................................................................................... 321 exec ( ) ......................................................................................................................................................... 322 test ( ) .......................................................................................................................................................... 323 toSource ( ) .................................................................................................................................................. 324 toString ( ) .................................................................................................................................................... 325 28. JAVASCRIPT – DOM ............................................................................................................................... 327 The Legacy DOM .......................................................................................................................................... 328 The W3C DOM ............................................................................................................................................. 334 The IE 4 DOM ............................................................................................................................................... 338 DOM Compatibility ...................................................................................................................................... 342 PART 3: JAVASCRIPT ADVANCED ............................................................................................. 344 29. JAVASCRIPT – Errors and Exceptions ..................................................................................................... 345 Syntax Errors................................................................................................................................................ 345 Runtime Errors ............................................................................................................................................ 345 Logical Errors ............................................................................................................................................... 346 The try...catch...finally Statement ............................................................................................................... 346 The throw Statement .................................................................................................................................. 350 The onerror( ) Method ................................................................................................................................ 351 30. JAVASCRIPT – Form Validation .............................................................................................................. 354 Basic Form Validation .................................................................................................................................. 356 Data Format Validation ............................................................................................................................... 357 31. JAVASCRIPT – Animation ...................................................................................................................... 359 Manual Animation ....................................................................................................................................... 360 Automated Animation ................................................................................................................................. 361 Rollover with a Mouse Event ....................................................................................................................... 362 32. JAVASCRIPT – Multimedia ..................................................................................................................... 365 ix Checking for Plug-Ins ................................................................................................................................... 366 Controlling Multimedia ............................................................................................................................... 367 33. JAVASCRIPT – Debugging ...................................................................................................................... 369 Error Messages in IE .................................................................................................................................... 369 Error Messages in Firefox or Mozilla ........................................................................................................... 370 Error Notifications ....................................................................................................................................... 371 How to Debug a Script ................................................................................................................................. 371 Useful Tips for Developers .......................................................................................................................... 372 34. JAVASCRIPT – Image Map ..................................................................................................................... 374 35. JAVASCRIPT – Browsers ........................................................................................................................ 377 Navigator Properties ................................................................................................................................... 377 Navigator Methods ...................................................................................................................................... 378 Browser Detection ....................................................................................................................................... 379 10 Part 1: JavaScript Basics 11 What is JavaScript? Javascript is a dynamic computer programming language. It is lightweight and most commonly used as a part of web pages, whose implementations allow client-side script to interact with the user and make dynamic pages. It is an interpreted programming language with object-oriented capabilities. JavaScript was first known as LiveScript, but Netscape changed its name to JavaScript, possibly because of the excitement being generated by Java. JavaScript made its first appearance in Netscape 2.0 in 1995 with the name LiveScript. The general-purpose core of the language has been embedded in Netscape, Internet Explorer, and other web browsers. The ECMA-262 Specification defined a standard version of the core JavaScript language.  JavaScript is a lightweight, interpreted programming language.  Designed for creating network-centric applications.  Complementary to and integrated with Java.  Complementary to and integrated with HTML.  Open and cross-platform. Client-Side JavaScript Client-side JavaScript is the most common form of the language. The script should be included in or referenced by an HTML document for the code to be interpreted by the browser. It means that a web page need not be a static HTML, but can include programs that interact with the user, control the browser, and dynamically create HTML content. The JavaScript client-side mechanism provides many advantages over traditional CGI server-side scripts. For example, you might use JavaScript to check if the user has entered a valid e-mail address in a form field. 1. JAVASCRIPT – OVERVIEW 12 The JavaScript code is executed when the user submits the form, and only if all the entries are valid, they would be submitted to the Web Server. JavaScript can be used to trap user-initiated events such as button clicks, link navigation, and other actions that the user initiates explicitly or implicitly. Advantages of JavaScript The merits of using JavaScript are:  Less server interaction: You can validate user input before sending the page off to the server. This saves server traffic, which means less load on your server.  Immediate feedback to the visitors: They don't have to wait for a page reload to see if they have forgotten to enter something.  Increased interactivity: You can create interfaces that react when the user hovers over them with a mouse or activates them via the keyboard.  Richer interfaces: You can use JavaScript to include such items as drag-and- drop components and sliders to give a Rich Interface to your site visitors. Limitations of JavaScript We cannot treat JavaScript as a full-fledged programming language. It lacks the following important features:  Client-side JavaScript does not allow the reading or writing of files. This has been kept for security reason.  JavaScript cannot be used for networking applications because there is no such support available.  JavaScript doesn't have any multithreading or multiprocessor capabilities. Once again, JavaScript is a lightweight, interpreted programming language that allows you to build interactivity into otherwise static HTML pages. JavaScript Development Tools One of major strengths of JavaScript is that it does not require expensive development tools. You can start with a simple text editor such as Notepad. Since it 13 is an interpreted language inside the context of a web browser, you don't even need to buy a compiler. To make our life simpler, various vendors have come up with very nice JavaScript editing tools. Some of them are listed here:  Microsoft FrontPage: Microsoft has developed a popular HTML editor called FrontPage. FrontPage also provides web developers with a number of JavaScript tools to assist in the creation of interactive websites.  Macromedia Dreamweaver MX: Macromedia Dreamweaver MX is a very popular HTML and JavaScript editor in the professional web development crowd. It provides several handy prebuilt JavaScript components, integrates well with databases, and conforms to new standards such as XHTML and XML.  Macromedia HomeSite 5: HomeSite 5 is a well-liked HTML and JavaScript editor from Macromedia that can be used to manage personal websites effectively. Where is JavaScript Today? The ECMAScript Edition 5 standard will be the first update to be released in over four years. JavaScript 2.0 conforms to Edition 5 of the ECMAScript standard, and the difference between the two is extremely minor. The specification for JavaScript 2.0 can be found on the following site: http://www.ecmascript.org/ Today, Netscape's JavaScript and Microsoft's JScript conform to the ECMAScript standard, although both the languages still support the features that are not a part of the standard. 14 JavaScript can be implemented using JavaScript statements that are placed within the <script>... </script> HTML tags in a web page. You can place the <script> tags, containing your JavaScript, anywhere within you web page, but it is normally recommended that you should keep it within the <head> tags. The <script> tag alerts the browser program to start interpreting all the text between these tags as a script. A simple syntax of your JavaScript will appear as follows. <script ...> JavaScript code </script> The script tag takes two important attributes:  Language: This attribute specifies what scripting language you are using. Typically, its value will be javascript. Although recent versions of HTML (and XHTML, its successor) have phased out the use of this attribute.  Type: This attribute is what is now recommended to indicate the scripting language in use and its value should be set to "text/javascript". So your JavaScript syntax will look as follows. <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"> JavaScript code </script> Your First JavaScript Code Let us take a sample example to print out "Hello World". We added an optional HTML comment that surrounds our JavaScript code. This is to save our code from a browser that does not support JavaScript. The comment ends with a "//-->". Here "//" signifies a comment in JavaScript, so we add that to prevent a browser from reading 2. JAVASCRIPT – SYNTAX 15 the end of the HTML comment as a piece of JavaScript code. Next, we call a function document.write which writes a string into our HTML document. This function can be used to write text, HTML, or both. Take a look at the following code. <html> <body> <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"> <!-- document.write ("Hello World!") //--> </script> </body> </html> This code will produce the following result: Hello World! Whitespace and Line Breaks JavaScript ignores spaces, tabs, and newlines that appear in JavaScript programs. You can use spaces, tabs, and newlines freely in your program and you are free to format and indent your programs in a neat and consistent way that makes the code easy to read and understand. Semicolons are Optional Simple statements in JavaScript are generally followed by a semicolon character, just as they are in C, C++, and Java. JavaScript, however, allows you to omit this semicolon if each of your statements are placed on a separate line. For example, the following code could be written without semicolons. <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"> 16 <!-- var1 = 10 var2 = 20 //--> </script> But when formatted in a single line as follows, you must use semicolons: <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"> <!-- var1 = 10; var2 = 20; //--> </script> Note: It is a good programming practice to use semicolons. Case Sensitivity JavaScript is a case-sensitive language. This means that the language keywords, variables, function names, and any other identifiers must always be typed with a consistent capitalization of letters. So the identifiers Time and TIME will convey different meanings in JavaScript. NOTE: Care should be taken while writing variable and function names in JavaScript. Comments in JavaScript JavaScript supports both C-style and C++-style comments. Thus:  Any text between a // and the end of a line is treated as a comment and is ignored by JavaScript.  Any text between the characters /* and */ is treated as a comment. This may span multiple lines. 17  JavaScript also recognizes the HTML comment opening sequence <!--. JavaScript treats this as a single-line comment, just as it does the // comment.  The HTML comment closing sequence --> is not recognized by JavaScript so it should be written as //-->. Example The following example shows how to use comments in JavaScript. <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"> <!-- // This is a comment. It is similar to comments in C++ /* * This is a multiline comment in JavaScript * It is very similar to comments in C Programming */ //--> </script> 18 All the modern browsers come with built-in support for JavaScript. Frequently, you may need to enable or disable this support manually. This chapter explains the procedure of enabling and disabling JavaScript support in your browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, chrome, and Opera. JavaScript in Internet Explorer Here are the steps to turn on or turn off JavaScript in Internet Explorer:  Follow Tools -> Internet Options from the menu.  Select Security tab from the dialog box.  Click the Custom Level button.  Scroll down till you find the Scripting option.  Select Enable radio button under Active scripting.  Finally click OK and come out. To disable JavaScript support in your Internet Explorer, you need to select Disable radio button under Active scripting. JavaScript in Firefox Here are the steps to turn on or turn off JavaScript in Firefox:  Open a new tab -> type about: config in the address bar.  Then you will find the warning dialog. Select I’ll be careful, I promise!  Then you will find the list of configure options in the browser.  In the search bar, type javascript.enabled.  There you will find the option to enable or disable javascript by right-clicking on the value of that option -> select toggle. If javascript.enabled is true; it converts to false upon clicking toogle. If javascript is disabled; it gets enabled upon clicking toggle. 3. JAVASCRIPT – ENABLING 19 JavaScript in Chrome Here are the steps to turn on or turn off JavaScript in Chrome:  Click the Chrome menu at the top right hand corner of your browser.  Select Settings.  Click Show advanced settings at the end of the page.  Under the Privacy section, click the Content settings button.  In the "Javascript" section, select "Do not allow any site to run JavaScript" or "Allow all sites to run JavaScript (recommended)". JavaScript in Opera Here are the steps to turn on or turn off JavaScript in Opera:  Follow Tools-> Preferences from the menu.  Select Advanced option from the dialog box.  Select Content from the listed items.  Select Enable JavaScript checkbox.  Finally click OK and come out. To disable JavaScript support in Opera, you should not select the Enable JavaScript checkbox. Warning for Non-JavaScript Browsers If you have to do something important using JavaScript, then you can display a warning message to the user using <noscript> tags. You can add a noscript block immediately after the script block as follows: <html> <body> <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"> <!-- 20 document.write ("Hello World!") //--> </script> <noscript> Sorry...JavaScript is needed to go ahead. </noscript> </body> </html> Now, if the user's browser does not support JavaScript or JavaScript is not enabled, then the message from </noscript> will be displayed on the screen. 21 There is a flexibility given to include JavaScript code anywhere in an HTML document. However the most preferred ways to include JavaScript in an HTML file are as follows:  Script in <head>...</head> section.  Script in <body>...</body> section.  Script in <body>...</body> and <head>...</head> sections.  Script in an external file and then include in <head>...</head> section. In the following section, we will see how we can place JavaScript in an HTML file in different ways. JavaScript in <head>...</head> Section If you want to have a script run on some event, such as when a user clicks somewhere, then you will place that script in the head as follows. <html> <head> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- function sayHello() { alert("Hello World") } //--> </script> </head> <body> Click here for the result <input type="button" onclick="sayHello()" value="Say Hello" /> 4. JAVASCRIPT – PLACEMENT 22 </body> </html> This code will produce the following results: Click here for the result JavaScript in <body>...</body> Section If you need a script to run as the page loads so that the script generates content in the page, then the script goes in the <body> portion of the document. In this case, you would not have any function defined using JavaScript. Take a look at the following code. <html> <head> </head> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- document.write("Hello World") //--> </script> <p>This is web page body </p> </body> </html> This code will produce the following results: Hello World Say Hello 23 This is web page body JavaScript in <body> and <head> Sections You can put your JavaScript code in <head> and <body> section altogether as follows. <html> <head> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- function sayHello() { alert("Hello World") } //--> </script> </head> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- document.write("Hello World") //--> </script> <input type="button" onclick="sayHello()" value="Say Hello" /> </body> </html> This code will produce the following result. HelloWorld Say Hello 24 JavaScript in External File As you begin to work more extensively with JavaScript, you will be likely to find that there are cases where you are reusing identical JavaScript code on multiple pages of a site. You are not restricted to be maintaining identical code in multiple HTML files. The script tag provides a mechanism to allow you to store JavaScript in an external file and then include it into your HTML files. Here is an example to show how you can include an external JavaScript file in your HTML code using script tag and its src attribute. <html> <head> <script type="text/javascript" src="filename.js" ></script> </head> <body> ....... </body> </html> To use JavaScript from an external file source, you need to write all your JavaScript source code in a simple text file with the extension ".js" and then include that file as shown above. For example, you can keep the following content in filename.js file and then you can use sayHello function in your HTML file after including the filename.js file. function sayHello() { alert("Hello World") } 25 JavaScript Datatypes One of the most fundamental characteristics of a programming language is the set of data types it supports. These are the type of values that can be represented and manipulated in a programming language. JavaScript allows you to work with three primitive data types:  Numbers, e.g., 123, 120.50 etc.  Strings of text, e.g. "This text string" etc.  Boolean, e.g. true or false. JavaScript also defines two trivial data types, null and undefined, each of which defines only a single value. In addition to these primitive data types, JavaScript supports a composite data type known as object. We will cover objects in detail in a separate chapter. Note: Java does not make a distinction between integer values and floating-point values. All numbers in JavaScript are represented as floating-point values. JavaScript represents numbers using the 64-bit floating-point format defined by the IEEE 754 standard. JavaScript Variables Like many other programming languages, JavaScript has variables. Variables can be thought of as named containers. You can place data into these containers and then refer to the data simply by naming the container. Before you use a variable in a JavaScript program, you must declare it. Variables are declared with the var keyword as follows. <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var money; var name; 5. JAVASCRIPT – VARIABLES 26 //--> </script> You can also declare multiple variables with the same var keyword as follows: <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var money, name; //--> </script> Storing a value in a variable is called variable initialization. You can do variable initialization at the time of variable creation or at a later point in time when you need that variable. For instance, you might create a variable named money and assign the value 2000.50 to it later. For another variable, you can assign a value at the time of initialization as follows. <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var name = "Ali"; var money; money = 2000.50; //--> </script> Note: Use the var keyword only for declaration or initialization, once for the life of any variable name in a document. You should not re-declare same variable twice. JavaScript is untyped language. This means that a JavaScript variable can hold a value of any data type. Unlike many other languages, you don't have to tell JavaScript during variable declaration what type of value the variable will hold. The value type of a variable can change during the execution of a program and JavaScript takes care of it automatically. 27 JavaScript Variable Scope The scope of a variable is the region of your program in which it is defined. JavaScript variables have only two scopes.  Global Variables: A global variable has global scope which means it can be defined anywhere in your JavaScript code.  Local Variables: A local variable will be visible only within a function where it is defined. Function parameters are always local to that function. Within the body of a function, a local variable takes precedence over a global variable with the same name. If you declare a local variable or function parameter with the same name as a global variable, you effectively hide the global variable. Take a look into the following example. <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var myVar = "global"; // Declare a global variable function checkscope( ) { var myVar = "local"; // Declare a local variable document.write(myVar); } //--> </script> It will produce the following result: Local JavaScript Variable Names While naming your variables in JavaScript, keep the following rules in mind. 28  You should not use any of the JavaScript reserved keywords as a variable name. These keywords are mentioned in the next section. For example, break or boolean variable names are not valid.  JavaScript variable names should not start with a numeral (0-9). They must begin with a letter or an underscore character. For example, 123test is an invalid variable name but _123test is a valid one.  JavaScript variable names are case-sensitive. For example, Name and name are two different variables. JavaScript Reserved Words A list of all the reserved words in JavaScript are given in the following table. They cannot be used as JavaScript variables, functions, methods, loop labels, or any object names. abstract boolean break byte case catch char class const continue debugger default delete do double else enum export extends false final finally float for function goto if implements import in Instanceof int interface long native new null package private protected public return short static super switch synchronized this throw throws transient true try typeof var void volatile while with 29 What is an Operator? Let us take a simple expression 4 + 5 is equal to 9. Here 4 and 5 are called operands and ‘+’ is called the operator. JavaScript supports the following types of operators.  Arithmetic Operators  Comparison Operators  Logical (or Relational) Operators  Assignment Operators  Conditional (or ternary) Operators Let’s have a look at all the operators one by one. Arithmetic Operators JavaScript supports the following arithmetic operators: Assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, then: S. No. Operator and Description 1 + (Addition) Adds two operands Ex: A + B will give 30 2 - (Subtraction) Subtracts the second operand from the first Ex: A - B will give -10 6. JAVASCRIPT – OPERATORS 30 3 * (Multiplication) Multiply both operands Ex: A * B will give 200 4 / (Division) Divide the numerator by the denominator Ex: B / A will give 2 5 % (Modulus) Outputs the remainder of an integer division Ex: B % A will give 0 6 ++ (Increment) Increases an integer value by one Ex: A++ will give 11 7 -- (Decrement) Decreases an integer value by one Ex: A-- will give 9 Note: Addition operator (+) works for Numeric as well as Strings. e.g. "a" + 10 will give "a10". Example The following code shows how to use arithmetic operators in JavaScript. <html> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a = 33; 31 var b = 10; var c = "Test"; var linebreak = "<br />"; document.write("a + b = "); result = a + b; document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("a - b = "); result = a - b; document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("a / b = "); result = a / b; document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("a % b = "); result = a % b; document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("a + b + c = "); result = a + b + c; document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); 32 a = a++; document.write("a++ = "); result = a++; document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); b = b--; document.write("b-- = "); result = b--; document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); //--> </script> <p>Set the variables to different values and then try...</p> </body> </html> Output a + b = 43 a - b = 23 a / b = 3.3 a % b = 3 a + b + c = 43Test a++ = 33 b-- = 10 Set the variables to different values and then try... 33 Comparison Operators JavaScript supports the following comparison operators: Assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, then: S.No Operator and Description 1 == (Equal) Checks if the value of two operands are equal or not, if yes, then the condition becomes true. Ex: (A == B) is not true. 2 != (Not Equal) Checks if the value of two operands are equal or not, if the values are not equal, then the condition becomes true. Ex: (A != B) is true. 3 > (Greater than) Checks if the value of the left operand is greater than the value of the right operand, if yes, then the condition becomes true. Ex: (A > B) is not true. 4 < (Less than) Checks if the value of the left operand is less than the value of the right operand, if yes, then the condition becomes true. Ex: (A < B) is true. 5 >= (Greater than or Equal to) Checks if the value of the left operand is greater than or equal to the value of the right operand, if yes, then the condition becomes true. Ex: (A >= B) is not true. 34 6 <= (Less than or Equal to) Checks if the value of the left operand is less than or equal to the value of the right operand, if yes, then the condition becomes true. Ex: (A <= B) is true. Example The following code shows how to use comparison operators in JavaScript. <html> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a = 10; var b = 20; var linebreak = "<br />"; document.write("(a == b) => "); result = (a == b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("(a < b) => "); result = (a < b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("(a > b) => "); result = (a > b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); 35 document.write("(a != b) => "); result = (a != b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("(a >= b) => "); result = (a >= b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("(a <= b) => "); result = (a <= b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); //--> </script> <p>Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try...</p> </body> </html> Output (a == b) => false (a < b) => true (a > b) => false (a != b) => true (a >= b) => false 36 (a <= b) => true Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try... Logical Operators JavaScript supports the following logical operators: Assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, then: S.No Operator and Description 1 && (Logical AND) If both the operands are non-zero, then the condition becomes true. Ex: (A && B) is true. 2 || (Logical OR) If any of the two operands are non-zero, then the condition becomes true. Ex: (A || B) is true. 3 ! (Logical NOT) Reverses the logical state of its operand. If a condition is true, then the Logical NOT operator will make it false. Ex: ! (A && B) is false. Example 37 Try the following code to learn how to implement Logical Operators in JavaScript. <html> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a = true; var b = false; var linebreak = "<br />"; document.write("(a && b) => "); result = (a && b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("(a || b) => "); result = (a || b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("!(a && b) => "); result = (!(a && b)); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); //--> </script> 38 <p>Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try...</p> </body> </html> Output (a && b) => false (a || b) => true !(a && b) => true Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try... Bitwise Operators JavaScript supports the following bitwise operators: Assume variable A holds 2 and variable B holds 3, then: S.No Operator and Description 1 & (Bitwise AND) It performs a Boolean AND operation on each bit of its integer arguments. Ex: (A & B) is 2. 2 | (BitWise OR) It performs a Boolean OR operation on each bit of its integer arguments. Ex: (A | B) is 3. 3 ^ (Bitwise XOR) 39 It performs a Boolean exclusive OR operation on each bit of its integer arguments. Exclusive OR means that either operand one is true or operand two is true, but not both. Ex: (A ^ B) is 1. 4 ~ (Bitwise Not) It is a unary operator and operates by reversing all the bits in the operand. Ex: (~B) is -4. 5 << (Left Shift) It moves all the bits in its first operand to the left by the number of places specified in the second operand. New bits are filled with zeros. Shifting a value left by one position is equivalent to multiplying it by 2, shifting two positions is equivalent to multiplying by 4, and so on. Ex: (A << 1) is 4. 6 >> (Right Shift) Binary Right Shift Operator. The left operand’s value is moved right by the number of bits specified by the right operand. Ex: (A >> 1) is 1. 7 >>> (Right shift with Zero) This operator is just like the >> operator, except that the bits shifted in on the left are always zero. Ex: (A >>> 1) is 1. Example Try the following code to implement Bitwise operator in JavaScript. <html> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> 40 <!-- var a = 2; // Bit presentation 10 var b = 3; // Bit presentation 11 var linebreak = "<br />"; document.write("(a & b) => "); result = (a & b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("(a | b) => "); result = (a | b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("(a ^ b) => "); result = (a ^ b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("(~b) => "); result = (~b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("(a << b) => "); result = (a << b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); 41 document.write("(a >> b) => "); result = (a >> b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); //--> </script> <p>Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try...</p> </body> </html> Output (a & b) => 2 (a | b) => 3 (a ^ b) => 1 (~b) => -4 (a << b) => 16 (a >> b) => 0 Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try... Assignment Operators JavaScript supports the following assignment operators: S.No Operator and Description 1 = (Simple Assignment ) Assigns values from the right side operand to the left side operand 42 Ex: C = A + B will assign the value of A + B into C 2 += (Add and Assignment) It adds the right operand to the left operand and assigns the result to the left operand. Ex: C += A is equivalent to C = C + A 3 -= (Subtract and Assignment) It subtracts the right operand from the left operand and assigns the result to the left operand. Ex: C -= A is equivalent to C = C - A 4 *= (Multiply and Assignment) It multiplies the right operand with the left operand and assigns the result to the left operand. Ex: C *= A is equivalent to C = C * A 5 /= (Divide and Assignment) It divides the left operand with the right operand and assigns the result to the left operand. Ex: C /= A is equivalent to C = C / A 6 %= (Modules and Assignment) It takes modulus using two operands and assigns the result to the left operand. Ex: C %= A is equivalent to C = C % A Note: Same logic applies to Bitwise operators, so they will become <<=, >>=, >>=, &=, |= and ^=. Example Try the following code to implement assignment operator in JavaScript. 43 <html> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a = 33; var b = 10; var linebreak = "<br />"; document.write("Value of a => (a = b) => "); result = (a = b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("Value of a => (a += b) => "); result = (a += b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("Value of a => (a -= b) => "); result = (a -= b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("Value of a => (a *= b) => "); result = (a *= b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); 44 document.write("Value of a => (a /= b) => "); result = (a /= b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write("Value of a => (a %= b) => "); result = (a %= b); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); //--> </script> <p>Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try...</p> </body> </html> Output Value of a => (a = b) => 10 Value of a => (a += b) => 20 Value of a => (a -= b) => 10 Value of a => (a *= b) => 100 Value of a => (a /= b) => 10 Value of a => (a %= b) => 0 Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try... 45 Miscellaneous Operators We will discuss two operators here that are quite useful in JavaScript: the conditional operator (? :) and the typeof operator. Conditional Operator (? :) The conditional operator first evaluates an expression for a true or false value and then executes one of the two given statements depending upon the result of the evaluation. S.No Operator and Description 1 ? : (Conditional ) If Condition is true? Then value X : Otherwise value Y Example Try the following code to understand how the Conditional Operator works in JavaScript. <html> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a = 10; var b = 20; var linebreak = "<br />"; document.write ("((a > b) ? 100 : 200) => "); result = (a > b) ? 100 : 200; document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); document.write ("((a < b) ? 100 : 200) => "); 46 result = (a < b) ? 100 : 200; document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); //--> </script> <p>Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try...</p> </body> </html> Output ((a > b) ? 100 : 200) => 200 ((a < b) ? 100 : 200) => 100 Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try... typeof Operator The typeof operator is a unary operator that is placed before its single operand, which can be of any type. Its value is a string indicating the data type of the operand. The typeof operator evaluates to "number", "string", or "boolean" if its operand is a number, string, or boolean value and returns true or false based on the evaluation. Here is a list of the return values for the typeof Operator. Type String Returned by typeof Number "number" String "string" 47 Boolean "boolean" Object "object" Function "function" Undefined "undefined" Null "object" Example The following code shows how to implement typeof operator. <html> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a = 10; var b = "String"; var linebreak = "<br />"; result = (typeof b == "string" ? "B is String" : "B is Numeric"); document.write("Result => "); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); result = (typeof a == "string" ? "A is String" : "A is Numeric"); document.write("Result => "); document.write(result); document.write(linebreak); 48 //--> </script> <p>Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try...</p> </body> </html> Output Result => B is String Result => A is Numeric Set the variables to different values and different operators and then try... 49 End of ebook preview If you liked what you saw… Buy it from our store @ https://store.tutorialspoint.com