JavaScript and String as primitive value - javascript

In JavaScript a String is a primitive value.
But is also a String object...
A primitive value is a value put directly into a variable.
So my question is:
var d = "foo";
does d contain directly foo or a reference to a string object like other languages?
Thanks.

If I understand it correctly, d will contain the string literal "foo", and not a reference to an object. However, the JavaScript engine will effectively cast the literal to an instance of String when necessary, which is why you can call methods of String.prototype on string literals:
"some string".toUpperCase(); //Method of String.prototype
The following snippet from MDN may help to explain it further (emphasis added):
String literals (denoted by double or single quotes) and strings
returned from String calls in a non-constructor context (i.e., without
using the new keyword) are primitive strings. JavaScript automatically
converts primitives and String objects, so that it's possible to use
String object methods for primitive strings. In contexts where a
method is to be invoked on a primitive string or a property lookup
occurs, JavaScript will automatically wrap the string primitive and
call the method or perform the property lookup.
This is all explained in detail in the specification, but it's not exactly easy reading. I asked a related question recently (about why it is possible to do the above), so it might be worth reading the (very) detailed answer.

if you define
var d = "foo";
than d contains directly foo
but, if you define
var S = new String("foo");
then S is an Object
Example:
var s1 = "1";
var s2 = "1";
s1 == s2 -> true
var S1 = new String("2");
var S2 = new String("2");
S1 == S2 -> false

I think that every variable in Javascript actually represents an Object. Even a function is an Object.

I found two useful articles detailing this, located here and here. Seems like primitive types in JavaScript are passed by VALUE (i.e. when you pass if to a function it gets "sandboxed" within the function and the original variable's value won't change), while reference types are passed, you guessed it, by REFERENCE and passing it through to a function will change the original variable.
Primitive types in JavaScript are text (string), numeric (float / int), boolean and NULL (and the dreaded "undefined" type). Any custom objects, functions or standard arrays are considered reference types. I haven't researched the Date type though, but I'm sure it will fall into the primitive types.

Found this page about javascript variables, seems that:
Primitive type for javascript are booleans, numbers and text.

I believe there are no primitives in Javascript, in the Java sense at least - everything is an object of some kind.
So yes it is a reference to an object - if you extend the String object, d would have that extension.
If you mean primitives as in those types provided by the language, you've got a few, boolean, numbers, strings and dates are all defined by the language.

Related

What is the purpose of using function `String()` with function argument?

I'm currently reading 'Singe Page Web Applications' book. I encountered the following example:
// This is single pass encoder for html entities and handles
// an arbitrary number of characters
encodeHtml = function ( input_arg_str, exclude_amp) {
var input_str = String( input_arg_str), regex, lookup_map;
...
return input_str.replace(regex, function ( match, name ){
return lookup_map[ match ] || '';
});
};
I wonder, what is the purpose of using function String() with argument input_arg_str. I know that by using String() function I can convert different object to string, but I never met with such a feature using String().
I'm curious what you think about this and top thank you for your help.
#Amit Joki's answer is correct, of course, but there are several ways you could convert an object to a string, why use String(...)?
I'd guess the main reason here is that it safely handle's null and undefined whereas .toString would obviously fail.
String(undefined) // "undefined"
String(null) // "null"
In short, it's a more defensive way to convert an object to a string than .toString. Here's a note about it on MDN:
It's possible to use String as a "safer" toString alternative, as
although it still normally calls the underlying toString, it also
works for null and undefined.
I believe you get the same results with string concatenation:
var input_str = '' + input_arg_str; // also handles `null` and `undefined`
Can't say I've ever found a reason to use it, but MDN does suggest there are some subtle differences between string literals and string objects (emphasis mine):
Note that JavaScript distinguishes between String objects and primitive string values. (The same is true of Boolean and Numbers.)
String literals (denoted by double or single quotes) and strings returned from String calls in a non-constructor context (i.e., without using the new keyword) are primitive strings. JavaScript automatically converts primitives to String objects, so that it's possible to use String object methods for primitive strings. In contexts where a method is to be invoked on a primitive string or a property lookup occurs, JavaScript will automatically wrap the string primitive and call the method or perform the property lookup.
String primitives and String objects also give different results when using eval. Primitives passed to eval are treated as source code; String objects are treated as all other objects are, by returning the object.
For these reasons, code may break when it encounters String objects when it expects a primitive string instead, although generally authors need not worry about the distinction.
source: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String
As others have said, in the context of the code you posted, it does ensure that whatever was passed as input_arg_str is converted to an actual string.

How "this" in methods of Javascript Number objects be converted to the numeric value of the object?

It seems in Number objects, numeric values can be referenced directly using "this" instead of this.valueOf() or something like "this.value", for example:
Number.prototype.printPlusOne=function(){
var tmp=this+1;
alert(tmp);
}
var n=new Number("5");
n.printPlusOne();
And why is this possible(using "this" directly instead of "this.valueOf()" in the addition above)?
I didn't find this feature in the Number specification, Did I missed something?
And further more, Is this automatic conversion feature used in other classes of objects?
Neither operand of the + operator is a string, so JavaScript calls valueOf to implicitly convert the Object (a Number, in this case) to a primitive value, in order to perform numeric addition. Quoting David Flanagan:
If the object has a valueOf() method that returns a primitive value, JavaScript converts (if necessary) that primitive value to a number and returns the result.
So, this is implicitly converted to its primitive value.
If you did something silly like override Number.valueOf:
Number.prototype.valueOf = function() {
return 10;
}
then your function would alert 11 instead.
Not sure what you're trying to accomplish here, but:
Number.prototype.print=function(){
alert(this.valueOf());
}
var n=new Number("5");
n.print();

javascript: do primitive strings have methods?

MDN states:
primitive, primitive value
A data that is not an object and does
not have any methods. JavaScript has 5
primitive datatypes: string, number,
boolean, null, undefined. With the
exception of null and undefined, all
primitives values have object
equivalents which wrap around the
primitive values, e.g. a String object
wraps around a string primitive. All
primitives are immutable.
So when we call a "s".replace or "s".anything is it equivalent to new String("s").replace and new String("s").anything?
No, string primitives do not have methods. As with numeric primitives, the JavaScript runtime will promote them to full-blown "String" objects when called upon to do so by constructs like:
var space = "hello there".indexOf(" ");
In some languages (well, Java in particular, but I think the term is in common use) it's said that the language "boxes" the primitives in their object wrappers when appropriate. With numbers it's a little more complicated due to the vagaries of the token grammar; you can't just say
var foo = 27.toLocaleString();
because the "." won't be interpreted the way you'd need it to be; however:
var foo = (27).toLocaleString();
works fine. With string primitives — and booleans, for that matter — the grammar isn't ambiguous, so for example:
var foo = true.toString();
will work.
The technically correct answer is "no".
The real-world answer is "no, but it will work anyway". That's because when you do something like
"s".replace()
the interpreter knows that you want to actually operate on the string as if you had created it with
var str = new String("s")
and therefore acts as if you had done that.

Are strings objects? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How is a Javascript string not an object?
(2 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
Here are two reasons to think strings are objects. First, you can create a string in the following way:
var mystring = new String("asdf");
I'm under the impression that the constructor function following the new operator has to return an object. Second, strings seem to have properties and methods. For example:
mystring.toUpperCase();
BUT, if strings were objects, then we'd expect something like the following to work:
function string_constructor() {
return "asdf";
}
var mystring = new string_constructor();
But it doesn't, and I've been told it doesn't because strings aren't objects. So are strings objects or not? And, either way, how can I make sense of everything I've listed?
Speaking about language types, Strings are values of the String type.
The language has five primitive types, which are String, Number, Boolean, Null and Undefined.
There are String objects (also for Number or Boolean), they are called primitive wrappers, they are created when you use the constructor function associated with them, for example:
typeof new String('foo'); // "object"
typeof 'foo'; // "string"
But don't get confused with them, you will rarely need to use primitive wrappers, because even if primitive values are not objects, you can still access their inherited properties, for example, on a string, you can access all members of String.prototype, e.g.:
'foo'.indexOf('o'); // 2
That's because the property accessor (the dot in this case) temporarily converts the primitive value to an object, for being able to resolve the indexOf property up in the prototype chain.
About the constructor function you have in your question, as you know, it won't return the string.
Functions called with the new operator return an implicit value, which is a new object that inherits from that function's prototype, for example:
function Test () {
// don't return anything (equivalent to returning undefined)
}
new Test() instanceof Test; // true, an object
If an object is returned from the constructor, that newly created object (this within the constructor) will be lost, so the explicit returned object will come out the function:
function Test2() {
return {foo: 'bar'};
}
new Test2().foo; // 'bar'
But in the case of primitive values, they are just ignored, and the new object from the constructor is implicitly returned (for more details check the [[Construct]] internal operation, (see step 9 and 10)).
In JavaScript, strings come in two flavors:
There is a String language type which contains values like "foo" and 'bar'. Those values are primitive values. Read about the String type here
Then there is a String constructor. (A constructor is a function object which is used to create new instances of a certain "class" (or pseudo-class)). So this: new String("foo")
will create a new object (a value of the type Object), which contains the primitive value "foo". Read about the String constructor here
In practice you don't use the new String('foo') notation, but the string literal notation 'foo'.
So to answer your question:
In JavaScript, strings are not objects. They are primitive values. However, there exist String objects which can be used to store string values, but those String objects are not used in practice.
Primitive strings behaves like objects in JavaScript because they are automatically converted to objects when you call an object method:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String
String objects may be created by
calling the constructor new String().
The String object wraps JavaScript's
string primitive data type with the
methods described below. The global
function String() can also be called
without new in front to create a
primitive string. String literals in
JavaScript are primitive strings.
Because JavaScript automatically
converts between string primitives and
String objects, you can call any of
the methods of the String object on a
string primitive. JavaScript
automatically converts the string
primitive to a temporary String
object, calls the method, then
discards the temporary String object.
For example, you can use the
String.length property on a string
primitive created from a string
literal
String are both primitive and object type. Think about int, float, char ... which have real Object classes like Integer, Float and Char in Java.
String is a wrapper around the primitive string datatype. When you do something like var s = "My String" then a String wrapper object is created behind the scenes when needed..
It is interesting however that typeof s = 'string' instead of 'object'. Anybody know why that is?
Strings are objects, but what you are doing in your example is not creating a new String. By using 'new' you are creating an instance of a Object, not a 'string'
var F = function() {
return 'c';
};
var a = new String('a');
var b = 'b';
var c = new F();
alert("a is: " + typeof a + ", b is: " + typeof b + ", c is: " + typeof c);
// alerts: a is: object, b is: string. c is: object
You shouldn't use 'new' for strings regardless (or arrays, or 'simple' objects.)

Does String inherit from Object in Javascript?

Is Object the base class of all objects in Javascript, just like other language such as Java & C#?
I tried below code in Firefox with Firebug installed.
var t = new Object();
var s1 = new String('str');
var s2 = 'str';
console.log(typeof t);
console.log(typeof s1);
console.log(typeof s2);
The console output is
object
object
string
So, s1 and s2 are of diffeent type?
Yes, 'str' is a string literal, not a string object.
A string literal has access to all of a string's objects and methods because javascript will temporarily cast a string literal as a string object in order to run the desired method.
Finally:
Where the two differ is their treatment of new properties and methods. Like all Javascript Objects you can assign properties and methods to any String object. You can not add properties or methods to a string literal. They are ignored by the interpreter.
Read up more here.
The process is called boxing/unboxing.
This means that whenever the interpreter/compiler sees a primitive type used as an Object then it will use
new Object([primitive])
to get a valid instance. And in the same way, as soon as you try to use it as a primitive (as in an expression) it will use
[boxedobject].valueOf()
to get the primitive.
In ECMAScript (javascript) the constructor of Object is able to box all primitives.
Read this: http://skypoetsworld.blogspot.com/2007/11/javascript-string-primitive-or-object.html
and this: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Glossary#primitive
and this: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Reference/Global_Objects/String

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