CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptstring-interpolationlettemplate-literals
Abdulkalam R
Abdulkalam R

Reputation: 43

Why is let not recognised as a keyword in type conversion to string in javaScript?

Type conversion to string in javaScript apparently ignores let as a keyword.

String(let) throws the error ReferenceError: let is not defined

Whereas, String(var) throws the error SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'var'

Is that the intended behaviour?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 313

Answers (1)

CertainPerformance
CertainPerformance

Reputation: 370679

"Reserved keywords" cannot be used as identifiers (variable names). var is a reserved keyword.

let is not a reserved keyword, because that would break backwards compatibility: ancient scripts written without ES6 in mind that happened to use let as a variable name would fail (and browsers try very hard not to break backwards compatibility

  • see that question for an extended explanation).

So using String(var) throws a syntax error, but syntactically permits the use of let - up until the point where you try to reference it (at which point an error is thrown because no such variable named let exists).

For the exact same reason, it's possible to define a variable named let, but not to define a variable named var:

var let = 123;
console.log(String(let));

var var = 123;
console.log(String(var));

Also, let can't be declared as an identifier in strict mode:

'use strict';
var let = 123;
console.log(String(let));

This is possible because if strict mode is being used, the code that is running is guaranteed to have been written after ES5 (and so there isn't any backwards compatibility to worry about).

As a comment notes, this is not string interpolation. This is just the parser identifying valid variable/identifier names.

Upvotes: 3

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