In this second video from the beginners JavaScript tutorial series, you will learn how to create variables and work with strings, integers, and float data types in JavaScript.
Variables are used to store information in program such as text, numbers or true/false values. Variables are given a name and are assigned a value. To create a variable in JavaScript we use the var keyword, then specify the variable name, use the = sign to assign a value, and then specify the value to store (you can also create a variable without immediately assigning it a value). For example: var myNumber = 50;
Variable names must be unique and cannot contain spaces. They don’t begin with a number but can contain numbers. They generally begin with a lowercase letter and if the variable name contains multiple words, then they can be indicated by using camelcase (starting each new word with an uppercase letter) eg. myVariable.
Variables can store data of different types. The main types are:
- string – text including letters, numbers and other special characters eg. “Hello world”
- integer – whole number values eg. 5
- float – numbers with a decimal point eg. 5.3
- boolean – a true or false value
Watch the video below or click here to view it on YouTube.
The code snippet below shows how to declare variables in JavaScript and how to assign values to a variable. Pay attention to the //comments which explain the different ways of setting up variables.
<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"/> <title>JavaScript - Variables</title> <script type="text/javascript"> var myVariable = 50; // Variable names (identifiers) have to begin with lower or uppercase letters or an underscore // Variable names cannot begin with a number, however they can contain a number // To declare a variable, use the keyword var // You can assign a value to a variable when you declare it, in one line (as above) // ...or you can declare a variable and then assign a value later, as below... var myVariable2; myVariable2 = "Hello there"; document.write(myVariable); // This displays the value of myVariable in the browser window </script> </head> <body> </body> </html> |
This source code shows how create and use variables of different data types. Strings are text (letters, numbers and characters), integers are regular whole numbers (treated as numbers), and floats are real numbers (with decimal places eg. 4.5). Boolean is another data type which is used for true/false values. You’ll also see how to use the HTML br tag to add a new line between text that is displayed in the browser.
<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en" <head> <meta charset="utf-8"/> <title>JavaScript - Data Types</title> <script type="text/javascript"> //integer var age = 20; document.write(age); //float var price = 12.95; document.write(price); //string var name = "Smith"; var sentence = "He said \"hello\"."; /* Just like in Python, a backslash can be used as an escape character so that quotation marks can be used inside a string without any errors You can also use single quotes to enclose a string if you want to use double quotes inside a sting eg. var sentence = 'He said "hello".'; */ document.write("</br>", sentence); //You can concatenate (join) strings using a comma and you can also use HTML tags inside quotation marks eg. </br> //The </br> tag is used to add a new line when the string is displayed in the browser. </script> </head> <body> </body> </html> |
Hint: Have a look at the toFixed() method if you wish to display floats with a specified number of decimal places.
Next tutorial: Operators