How to Learn JavaScript
You’ll probably run into javascript sooner or later in your career as a web developer. It’s the language responsible for many of the interactive features you see on websites, like drop-down menus and form validation. It’s also used to create animations, improve user experience, and enable websites to update content without requiring users to reload the page. It’s not as scary as it sounds—and it’s even more important to learn if you want to become a successful web developer.
JavaScript (abbreviated JS) is one of the three core languages of the internet, along with hypertext markup language (HTML) and cascading style sheets (CSS). It’s unique because it can be run in the browser, meaning it can interact directly with the user through mouse clicks, scrolls, keyboard input, and touch screen presses. It’s the magic ingredient that makes webpages dynamic.
A computer cannot understand javascript, so it uses an engine to translate the coding into its own machine code. This process is called compiling. Once this happens, the engine will run the code and display the results to the user. The process takes time because each line of coding is processed independently from the others. It’s important to use the right coding techniques for javascript so that the code runs smoothly and efficiently.
If you’re interested in learning javascript, there are a variety of online courses that can help you get started. Courses typically last around 14 weeks and can be taken full or part time depending on your schedule.
To start, you’ll need to know some html and css basics. Once you have a firm grasp of those, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the language itself. JavaScript is an object-oriented, scripting language that’s closely related to both java and c++. Its syntax is similar to both of these languages, though it’s more dynamic and interpreted rather than compiled.
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the basic structure of javascript, it’s time to dig into some more advanced concepts. You’ll need to understand the different data types, how variables are stored in memory, and how functions are executed.
The next concept to understand is closures. Closures are a key feature in javascript that allow you to create reusable functions. The best way to understand how closures work is to step through an example. For this example, we’ll be creating a function that calculates the value of ans. Once the function is created, we’ll add a variable named num to store its value. We’ll then call the inner function to calculate ans and return its value.
When you write a function, the first thing to do is to define its parameters. This is done by using the function keyword followed by a params argument. Then, you’ll need to define the body of the function. The function body can contain a list of arguments or a block of statements. The argument list must end with a return statement, which is the final part of the function.