A mostly reasonable approach to JavaScript

Note: this guide assumes you are using Babel, and requires that you use babel-preset-airbnb or the equivalent. It also assumes you are installing shims/polyfills in your app, with airbnb-browser-shims or the equivalent.

This guide is available in other languages too. See Translation

Other Style Guides

• ES5 (Deprecated)
• React
• CSS-in-JavaScript
• CSS & Sass
• Ruby

1. Types
2. References
3. Objects
4. Arrays
5. Destructuring
6. Strings
7. Functions
8. Arrow Functions
9. Classes & Constructors
10. Modules
11. Iterators and Generators
12. Properties
13. Variables
14. Hoisting
15. Comparison Operators & Equality
16. Blocks
17. Control Statements
18. Comments
19. Whitespace
20. Commas
21. Semicolons
22. Type Casting & Coercion
23. Naming Conventions
24. Accessors
25. Events
26. jQuery
27. ECMAScript 5 Compatibility
28. ECMAScript 6+ (ES 2015+) Styles
29. Standard Library
30. Testing
31. Performance
32. Resources
33. In the Wild
34. Translation
35. The JavaScript Style Guide Guide
36. Chat With Us About JavaScript
37. Contributors
38. License
39. Amendments

• 1.1 Primitives: When you access a primitive type you work directly on its value.

  • string
  • number
  • boolean
  • null
  • undefined
  • symbol
  • bigint
  
  

  const foo = 1;
  let bar = foo;
  
  bar = 9;
  
  console.log(foo, bar); // => 1, 9

  • Symbols and BigInts cannot be faithfully polyfilled, so they should not be used when targeting browsers/environments that don’t support them natively.

• 1.2 Complex: When you access a complex type you work on a reference to its value.

  • object
  • array
  • function
  
  

  const foo = [1, 2];
  const bar = foo;
  
  bar[0] = 9;
  
  console.log(foo[0], bar[0]); // => 9, 9

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• 2.1 Use const for all of your references; avoid using var. eslint: prefer-const, no-const-assign

  Why? This ensures that you can’t reassign your references, which can lead to bugs and difficult to comprehend code.

  // bad
  var a = 1;
  var b = 2;
  
  // good
  const a = 1;
  const b = 2;

• 2.2 If you must reassign references, use let instead of var. eslint: no-var

  Why? let is block-scoped rather than function-scoped like var.

  // bad
  var count = 1;
  if (true) {
    count += 1;
  }
  
  // good, use the let.
  let count = 1;
  if (true) {
    count += 1;
  }

• 2.3 Note that both let and const are block-scoped, whereas var is function-scoped.

  // const and let only exist in the blocks they are defined in.
  {
    let a = 1;
    const b = 1;
    var c = 1;
  }
  console.log(a); // ReferenceError
  console.log(b); // ReferenceError
  console.log(c); // Prints 1

  In the above code, you can see that referencing a and b will produce a ReferenceError, while c contains the number. This is because a and b are block scoped, while c is scoped to the containing function.

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• 3.1 Use the literal syntax for object creation. eslint: no-new-object

  // bad
  const item = new Object();
  
  // good
  const item = {};

• 3.2 Use computed property names when creating objects with dynamic property names.

  Why? They allow you to define all the properties of an object in one place.

  function getKey(k) {
    return `a key named ${k}`;
  }
  
  // bad
  const obj = {
    id: 5,
    name: 'San Francisco',
  };
  obj[getKey('enabled')] = true;
  
  // good
  const obj = {
    id: 5,
    name: 'San Francisco',
    [getKey('enabled')]: true,
  };

• 3.3 Use object method shorthand. eslint: object-shorthand

  // bad
  const atom = {
    value: 1,
  
    addValue: function (value) {
      return atom.value + value;
    },
  };
  
  // good
  const atom = {
    value: 1,
  
    addValue(value) {
      return atom.value + value;
    },
  };

• 3.4 Use property value shorthand. eslint: object-shorthand

  Why? It is shorter and descriptive.

  const lukeSkywalker = 'Luke Skywalker';
  
  // bad
  const obj = {
    lukeSkywalker: lukeSkywalker,
  };
  
  // good
  const obj = {
    lukeSkywalker,
  };

• 3.5 Group your shorthand properties at the beginning of your object declaration.

  Why? It’s easier to tell which properties are using the shorthand.

  const anakinSkywalker = 'Anakin Skywalker';
  const lukeSkywalker = 'Luke Skywalker';
  
  // bad
  const obj = {
    episodeOne: 1,
    twoJediWalkIntoACantina: 2,
    lukeSkywalker,
    episodeThree: 3,
    mayTheFourth: 4,
    anakinSkywalker,
  };
  
  // good
  const obj = {
    lukeSkywalker,
    anakinSkywalker,
    episodeOne: 1,
    twoJediWalkIntoACantina: 2,
    episodeThree: 3,
    mayTheFourth: 4,
  };

• 3.6 Only quote properties that are invalid identifiers. eslint: quote-props

  Why? In general we consider it subjectively easier to read. It improves syntax highlighting, and is also more easily optimized by many JS engines.

  // bad
  const bad = {
    'foo': 3,
    'bar': 4,
    'data-blah': 5,
  };
  
  // good
  const good = {
    foo: 3,
    bar: 4,
    'data-blah': 5,
  };

• 3.7 Do not call Object.prototype methods directly, such as hasOwnProperty, propertyIsEnumerable, and isPrototypeOf. eslint: no-prototype-builtins

  Why? These methods may be shadowed by properties on the object in question - consider { hasOwnProperty: false } - or, the object may be a null object (Object.create(null)). In modern browsers that support ES2022, or with a polyfill such as https://npmjs.com/object.hasown, Object.hasOwn can also be used as an alternative to Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call.

  // bad
  console.log(object.hasOwnProperty(key));
  
  // good
  console.log(Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(object, key));
  
  // better
  const has = Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty; // cache the lookup once, in module scope.
  console.log(has.call(object, key));
  
  // best
  console.log(Object.hasOwn(object, key)); // only supported in browsers that support ES2022
  
  /* or */
  import has from 'has'; // https://www.npmjs.com/package/has
  console.log(has(object, key));
  /* or */
  console.log(Object.hasOwn(object, key)); // https://www.npmjs.com/package/object.hasown

• 3.8 Prefer the object spread syntax over Object.assign to shallow-copy objects. Use the object rest parameter syntax to get a new object with certain properties omitted. eslint: prefer-object-spread

  // very bad
  const original = { a: 1, b: 2 };
  const copy = Object.assign(original, { c: 3 }); // this mutates `original` ಠ_ಠ
  delete copy.a; // so does this
  
  // bad
  const original = { a: 1, b: 2 };
  const copy = Object.assign({}, original, { c: 3 }); // copy => { a: 1, b: 2, c: 3 }
  
  // good
  const original = { a: 1, b: 2 };
  const copy = { ...original, c: 3 }; // copy => { a: 1, b: 2, c: 3 }
  
  const { a, ...noA } = copy; // noA => { b: 2, c: 3 }

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• 4.1 Use the literal syntax for array creation. eslint: no-array-constructor

  // bad
  const items = new Array();
  
  // good
  const items = [];

• 4.2 Use Array#push instead of direct assignment to add items to an array.

  const someStack = [];
  
  // bad
  someStack[someStack.length] = 'abracadabra';
  
  // good
  someStack.push('abracadabra');

• 4.3 Use array spreads ... to copy arrays.

  // bad
  const len = items.length;
  const itemsCopy = [];
  let i;
  
  for (i = 0; i < len; i += 1) {
    itemsCopy[i] = items[i];
  }
  
  // good
  const itemsCopy = [...items];

• 4.4 To convert an iterable object to an array, use spreads ... instead of Array.from

  const foo = document.querySelectorAll('.foo');
  
  // good
  const nodes = Array.from(foo);
  
  // best
  const nodes = [...foo];

• 4.5 Use Array.from for converting an array-like object to an array.

  <div class="highlight highlight-source-js notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" dir="auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="const arrLike = { 0: 'foo', 1: 'bar', 2: 'baz', leng