Why is null an object and what's the difference between null and undefined?
-
03-07-2019 - |
Question
Why is null
considered an object
in JavaScript?
Is checking
if ( object == null )
Do something
the same as
if ( !object )
Do something
?
And also:
What is the difference between null
and undefined
?
Solution
(name is undefined)
You: What is name
? (*)
JavaScript: name
? What's a name
? I don't know what you're talking about. You haven't ever mentioned any name
before. Are you seeing some other scripting language on the (client-)side?
name = null;
You: What is name
?
JavaScript: I don't know.
In short; undefined
is where no notion of the thing exists; it has no type, and it's never been referenced before in that scope; null
is where the thing is known to exist, but it's not known what the value is.
One thing to remember is that null
is not, conceptually, the same as false
or ""
or such, even if they equate after type casting, i.e.
name = false;
You: What is name
?
JavaScript: Boolean false.
name = '';
You: What is name
?
JavaScript: Empty string
*: name
in this context is meant as a variable which has never been defined. It could be any undefined variable, however, name is a property of just about any HTML form element. It goes way, way back and was instituted well before id. It is useful because ids must be unique but names do not have to be.
OTHER TIPS
The difference can be summarized into this snippet:
alert(typeof(null)); // object
alert(typeof(undefined)); // undefined
alert(null !== undefined) //true
alert(null == undefined) //true
Checking
object == null
is different to check if ( !object )
.
The latter is equal to ! Boolean(object)
, because the unary !
operator automatically cast the right operand into a Boolean.
Since Boolean(null)
equals false then !false === true
.
So if your object is not null, but false or 0 or "", the check will pass because:
alert(Boolean(null)) //false
alert(Boolean(0)) //false
alert(Boolean("")) //false
null
is not an object, it is a primitive value. For example, you cannot add properties to it. Sometimes people wrongly assume that it is an object, because typeof null
returns "object"
. But that is actually a bug (that might even be fixed in ECMAScript 6).
The difference between null
and undefined
is as follows:
undefined
: used by JavaScript and means “no value”. Uninitialized variables, missing parameters and unknown variables have that value.> var noValueYet; > console.log(noValueYet); undefined > function foo(x) { console.log(x) } > foo() undefined > var obj = {}; > console.log(obj.unknownProperty) undefined
Accessing unknown variables, however, produces an exception:
> unknownVariable ReferenceError: unknownVariable is not defined
null
: used by programmers to indicate “no value”, e.g. as a parameter to a function.
Examining a variable:
console.log(typeof unknownVariable === "undefined"); // true
var foo;
console.log(typeof foo === "undefined"); // true
console.log(foo === undefined); // true
var bar = null;
console.log(bar === null); // true
As a general rule, you should always use === and never == in JavaScript (== performs all kinds of conversions that can produce unexpected results). The check x == null
is an edge case, because it works for both null
and undefined
:
> null == null
true
> undefined == null
true
A common way of checking whether a variable has a value is to convert it to boolean and see whether it is true
. That conversion is performed by the if
statement and the boolean operator ! (“not”).
function foo(param) {
if (param) {
// ...
}
}
function foo(param) {
if (! param) param = "abc";
}
function foo(param) {
// || returns first operand that can't be converted to false
param = param || "abc";
}
Drawback of this approach: All of the following values evaluate to false
, so you have to be careful (e.g., the above checks can’t distinguish between undefined
and 0
).
undefined
,null
- Booleans:
false
- Numbers:
+0
,-0
,NaN
- Strings:
""
You can test the conversion to boolean by using Boolean
as a function (normally it is a constructor, to be used with new
):
> Boolean(null)
false
> Boolean("")
false
> Boolean(3-3)
false
> Boolean({})
true
> Boolean([])
true
What is the difference between null and undefined??
A property when it has no definition, is undefined. null is an object. Its type is object. null is a special value meaning "no value. undefined is not an object, it's type is undefined.
You can declare a variable, set it to null, and the behavior is identical except that you'll see "null" printed out versus "undefined". You can even compare a variable that is undefined to null or vice versa, and the condition will be true:
undefined == null
null == undefined
Refer to JavaScript Difference between null and undefined for more detail.
and with your new edit yes
if (object == null) does mean the same if(!object)
when testing if object is false, they both only meet the condition when testing if false, but not when true
Check here: Javascript gotcha
First part of the question:
Why is null considered an object in JavaScript?
It is a JavaScript design error they can't fix now. It should have been type null, not type object, or not have it at all. It necessitates an extra check (sometimes forgotten) when detecting real objects and is source of bugs.
Second part of the question:
Is checking
if (object == null)
Do something
the same as
if (!object)
Do something
The two checks are always both false except for:
object is undefined or null: both true.
object is primitive, and 0,
""
, or false: first check false, second true.
If the object is not a primitive, but a real Object, like new Number(0)
, new String("")
, or new Boolean(false)
, then both checks are false.
So if 'object' is interpreted to mean a real Object then both checks are always the same. If primitives are allowed then the checks are different for 0, ""
, and false.
In cases like object==null
, the unobvious results could be a source of bugs. Use of ==
is not recommended ever, use ===
instead.
Third part of the question:
And also:
What is the difference between null and undefined?
In JavaScript, one difference is that null is of type object and undefined is of type undefined.
In JavaScript, null==undefined
is true, and considered equal if type is ignored. Why they decided that, but 0, ""
and false aren't equal, I don't know. It seems to be an arbitrary opinion.
In JavaScript, null===undefined
is not true since the type must be the same in ===
.
In reality, null and undefined are identical, since they both represent non-existence. So do 0, and ""
for that matter too, and maybe the empty containers []
and {}
. So many types of the same nothing are a recipe for bugs. One type or none at all is better. I would try to use as few as possible.
'false', 'true', and '!' are another bag of worms that could be simplified, for example, if(!x)
and if(x)
alone are sufficient, you don't need true and false.
A declared var x
is type undefined if no value is given, but it should be the same as if x was never declared at all. Another bug source is an empty nothing container. So it is best to declare and define it together, like var x=1
.
People are going round and round in circles trying to figure out all these various types of nothing, but it's all just the same thing in complicated different clothes. The reality is
undefined===undeclared===null===0===""===[]==={}===nothing
And maybe all should throw exceptions.
var x = null;
x is defined as null
y is not defined; // because I did not define it
if (!x)
null is evaluated as false
One way to make sense of null and undefined is to understand where each occurs.
Expect a null return value in the following situations:
Methods that query the DOM
console.log(window.document.getElementById("nonExistentElement")); //Prints: null
JSON responses received from an Ajax request
{
name: "Bob",
address: null
}
New functionality that is in a state of flux. The following returns null:
var proto = Object.getPrototypeOf(Object.getPrototypeOf({}));
// But this returns undefined:
Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor({}, "a");
All other cases of non-existence are denoted by undefined (as noted by @Axel). Each of the following prints "undefined":
var uninitalised;
console.log(uninitalised);
var obj = {};
console.log(obj.nonExistent);
function missingParam(missing){
console.log(missing);
}
missingParam();
var arr = [];
console.log(arr.pop());
Of course if you decide to write var unitialised = null; or return null from a method yourself then you have null occurring in other situations. But that should be pretty obvious.
A third case is when you want to access a variable but you don't even know if it has been declared. For that case use typeof to avoid a reference error:
if(typeof unknown !== "undefined"){
//use unknown
}
In summary check for null when you are manipulating the DOM, dealing with Ajax, or using certain ECMAScript 5 features. For all other cases it is safe to check for undefined with strict equality:
if(value === undefined){
// stuff
}
Comparison of many different null checks in JavaScript:
http://jsfiddle.net/aaronhoffman/DdRHB/5/
// Variables to test
var myNull = null;
var myObject = {};
var myStringEmpty = "";
var myStringWhiteSpace = " ";
var myStringHello = "hello";
var myIntZero = 0;
var myIntOne = 1;
var myBoolTrue = true;
var myBoolFalse = false;
var myUndefined;
...trim...
http://aaron-hoffman.blogspot.com/2013/04/javascript-null-checking-undefined-and.html
null and undefined are both false for value equality (null==undefined): they both collapse to boolean false. They are not the same object (null!==undefined).
undefined is a property of the global object ("window" in browsers), but is a primitive type and not an object itself. It's the default value for uninitialized variables and functions ending without a return statement.
null is an instance of Object. null is used for DOM methods that return collection objects to indicate an empty result, which provides a false value without indicating an error.
Some precisions:
null and undefined are two different values. One is representing the absence of a value for a name and the other is representing the absence of a name.
What happens in an if
goes as follows for if( o )
:
The expression in the parentheses o is evaluated, and then the if
kicks in type-coercing the value of the expression in the parentheses - in our case o
.
Falsy (that will get coerced to false) values in JavaScript are: '', null, undefined, 0, and false.
To add to the answer of What is the differrence between undefined
and null
, from JavaScript Definitive Guide on this page:
You might consider
undefined
to represent system-level, unexpected, or error-like absense of value andnull
to represent program-level, normal, or expected absence of value. If you need to assign one of these values to a variable or property or pass one of these values to a function,null
is almost always the right choice.
The following function shows why and is capable for working out the difference:
function test() {
var myObj = {};
console.log(myObj.myProperty);
myObj.myProperty = null;
console.log(myObj.myProperty);
}
If you call
test();
You're getting
undefined
null
The first console.log(...)
tries to get myProperty
from myObj
while it is not yet defined - so it gets back "undefined". After assigning null to it, the second console.log(...)
returns obviously "null" because myProperty
exists, but it has the value null
assigned to it.
In order to be able to query this difference, JavaScript has null
and undefined
: While null
is - just like in other languages an object, undefined
cannot be an object because there is no instance (even not a null
instance) available.
null
is an object. Its type is null. undefined
is not an object; its type is undefined.
For example window.someWeirdProperty
is undefined, so
"window.someWeirdProperty === null"
evaluates to false while
"window.someWeirdProperty === undefined"
evaluates to true.
Moreover checkif if (!o)
is not the same as checking if (o == null)
for o
being false
.
The other fun thing about null, compared to undefined, is that it can be incremented.
x = undefined
x++
y = null
y++
console.log(x) // NaN
console.log(y) // 0
This is useful for setting default numerical values for counters. How many times have you set a variable to -1 in its declaration?
In Javascript null
is not an object
type it is a primitave
type.
What is the difference?
Undefined refers to a pointer that has not been set.
Null refers to the null pointer for example something has manually set a variable to be of type null
Look at this:
<script>
function f(a){
alert(typeof(a));
if (a==null) alert('null');
a?alert(true):alert(false);
}
</script>
//return:
<button onclick="f()">nothing</button> //undefined null false
<button onclick="f(null)">null</button> //object null false
<button onclick="f('')">empty</button> //string false
<button onclick="f(0)">zero</button> //number false
<button onclick="f(1)">int</button> //number true
<button onclick="f('x')">str</button> //string true
From "The Principles of Object-Oriented Javascript" by Nicholas C. Zakas
But why an object when the type is null? (In fact, this has been acknowledged as an error by TC39, the committee that designs and maintains JavaScript. You could reason that null is an empty object pointer, making "object" a logical return value, but that’s still confusing.)
Zakas, Nicholas C. (2014-02-07). The Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript (Kindle Locations 226-227). No Starch Press. Kindle Edition.
That said:
var game = null; //typeof(game) is "object"
game.score = 100;//null is not an object, what the heck!?
game instanceof Object; //false, so it's not an instance but it's type is object
//let's make this primitive variable an object;
game = {};
typeof(game);//it is an object
game instanceof Object; //true, yay!!!
game.score = 100;
Undefined case:
var score; //at this point 'score' is undefined
typeof(score); //'undefined'
var score.player = "felix"; //'undefined' is not an object
score instanceof Object; //false, oh I already knew that.
The best way to think about 'null' is to recall how the similar concept is used in databases, where it indicates that a field contains "no value at all."
- Yes, the item's value is known; it is 'defined.' It has been initialized.
- The item's value is: "there is no value."
This is a very useful technique for writing programs that are more-easily debugged. An 'undefined' variable might be the result of a bug ... (how would you know?) ... but if the variable contains the value 'null,' you know that "someone, somewhere in this program, set it to 'null.'" Therefore, I suggest that, when you need to get rid of the value of a variable, don't "delete" ... set it to 'null.' The old value will be orphaned and soon will be garbage-collected; the new value is, "there is no value (now)." In both cases, the variable's state is certain: "it obviously, deliberately, got that way."
- Undefined means a variable has been declared but it has not been assigned any value while Null can be assigned to a variable representing "no value".(Null is an assignment operator)
2.Undefined is a type itself while Null is an object.
3.Javascript can itself initialize any unassigned variable to undefined but it can never set value of a variable to null. This has to be done programatically.