1 Intro to Javascript
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What is Javascript?
2
a lightweight programming language
("scripting language")
used to make web pages interactive
insert dynamic text into HTML (ex: user
name)
react to events (ex: page load user click)
get information about a user's computer
(ex: browser type)
perform calculations on user's computer
(ex: form validation)
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What is Javascript?
3
a web standard (but not supported
identically by all browsers)
NOT related to Java other than by name
and some syntactic similarities
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Linking to a JavaScript file:
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script
<script src="filename" type="text/javascript"></script>
HTML
script tag should be placed in HTML
page's head
script code is stored in a separate .js file
JS code can be placed directly in the
HTML file's body or head (like CSS)
but this is bad style (should separate
content, presentation, and behavior
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Event-driven programming
5
split breaks apart a string into an array
using a delimiter
can also be used with regular expressions
(seen later)
join merges an array into a single string,
placing a delimiter between them
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A JavaScript statement:
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alert
alert("IE6 detected. Suck-mode enabled.");
JS
a JS command that pops up a dialog box
with a message
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JavaScript functions
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function name() {
statement ;
statement ;
...
statement ;
} JS
function myFunction() {
alert("Hello!");
alert("How are you?");
} JS
the above could be the contents of
[Link] linked to our HTML page
statements placed into functions can be
evaluated in response to user events
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Document Object Model
8
(DOM)
most JS code
manipulates elements
on an HTML page
we can examine
elements' state
e.g. see whether a box
is checked
we can change state
e.g. insert some new
text into a div
we can change styles
Variables
9
var name = expression; JS
var clientName = "Connie Client";
var age = 32;
var weight = 127.4; JS
variables are declared with the var
keyword (case sensitive)
types are not specified, but JS does have
types ("loosely typed")
Number, Boolean, String, Array, Object,
Function, Null, Undefined
can find out a variable's type by calling
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typeof
Comments (same as Java)
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// single-line comment
/* multi-line comment */
JS
identical to Java's comment syntax
recall: 4 comment syntaxes
HTML: <!-- comment -->
CSS/JS/PHP: /* comment */
Java/JS/PHP: // comment
PHP: # comment
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Logical operators
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> < >= <= && || ! == != === !==
most logical operators automatically
convert types:
5 < "7" is true
42 == 42.0 is true
"5.0" == 5 is true
=== and !== are strict equality tests;
checks both type and value
"5.0" === 5 is false
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if/else statement (same as
12
Java)
if (condition) {
statements;
} else if (condition) {
statements;
} else {
statements;
}
JS
identical structure to Java's if/else
statement
JavaScript allows almost anything as a
condition
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for loop (same as Java)
13
var sum = 0;
for (var i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
sum = sum + i;
}
JS
var s1 = "hello";
var s2 = "";
for (var i = 0; i < [Link]; i++) {
s2 += [Link](i) + [Link](i);
}
// s2 stores "hheelllloo"
JS
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while loops (same as Java)
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while (condition) {
statements;
} JS
do {
statements;
} while (condition);
JS
break and continue keywords also
behave as in Java
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Popup boxes
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alert("message"); // message
confirm("message"); // returns true or false
prompt("message"); // returns user input string
JS
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