javascript: Say something about undefined
I find people treat undefined incorrectly a lot.  It’s a value, you can use it, test for it, etc, but people frequently use typeof x == "undefined" when they don’t need to.
I made a fork with a big changeset of my own opinions, but here’s the section I wrote about undefined:
## <a name='undefined'>undefined</a>
  - `undefined` is an object.  You should use it as an object.  You can test for it.  For instance:
    ```javascript
    // good
    function pow(a, b) {
      if (b === undefined) {
        b = 1;
      }
      return Math.pow(a, b);
    }
    // bad
    function pow(a, b) {
      if (typeof b == "undefined") {
        b = 1;
      }
      return Math.pow(a, b);
    }
    ```
  - *Only* use `typeof x == "undefined"` when the variable (`x`) may not be declared, and it would be an error to test `x === undefined`:
    ```javascript
    if (typeof Module == "undefined") {
      Module = {};
    }
    // But also okay, for browser-only code:
    if (window.Module === undefined) {
      Module = {};
    }
    ```
    Note that you can't use `window` in Node.js; if you think your code could be used in a server context you should use the first form.
About this issue
- Original URL
- State: open
- Created 11 years ago
- Reactions: 2
- Comments: 26 (1 by maintainers)
The reason why comparision to
undefinedis not practiced, is that in most old browser engines you can overwrite it:Therefore it’s not safe. Imagine also small mistake in a code that inserts
<div id="undefined"></div>to the document, after that all yourundefinedcomparisons are doomed.