The Reference Specification Type and Type Conversions in JavaScript

Reference Specification Type

A Reference is a resolved name binding.

It is made up of 3 components:

• Base Value: (Type: undefined, Object, Number, String, Boolean, Environment Record). A base value of undefined means the reference could not be resolved to a binding.
• Referenced name: (Type: String) The name given to the reference.
• Strict reference flag: (Type: Boolean)

Type Conversions in JavaScript

The JavaScript runtime system performs automatic type conversions as needed.

Conversion can be done to primitive types as per the following rules:

• ToBoolean

This converts the argument to Boolean type.

//falsy values in JavaScript
console.log(Boolean(undefined));// false
console.log(Boolean(null));// false
console.log(Boolean(0));// false
console.log(Boolean(+0));// false
console.log(Boolean(-0));// false
console.log(Boolean(""));// false
console.log(Boolean(false));// false

//truthy values in JavaScript
console.log(Boolean(true));// true
console.log(Boolean("Hello"));// true
console.log(Boolean(4));// true
console.log(Boolean(+Infinity));// true
console.log(Boolean(-Infinity));// true
console.log(Boolean("0"));// true
console.log(Boolean({}));// true

• ToNumber This converts the argument to Number type.

  console.log(Number(undefined));// NaN
  console.log(Number(null));// 0
  console.log(Number(0));// 0
  console.log(Number(+0));// 0
  console.log(Number(-0));// -0
  console.log(Number(""));// 0
  console.log(Number(true));// 1
  console.log(Number("Hello"));// NaN
  console.log(Number(4));// 4
  console.log(Number(+Infinity));// Infinity
  console.log(Number(-Infinity));// -Infinity
  console.log(Number("0"));// 0
  console.log(Number({}));// NaN

• ToString This converts the argument to String type

  console.log(String(undefined));// undefined
  console.log(String(null));// null
  console.log(String(0));// 0
  console.log(String(+0));// 0
  console.log(String(-0));// 0
  console.log(String(""));//
  console.log(String(true));// true
  console.log(String("Hello"));// Hello
  console.log(String(4));// 4
  console.log(String(+Infinity));// Infinity
  console.log(String(-Infinity));// -Infinity
  console.log(String("0"));// 0
  console.log(String({}));// [object Object]

• ToObject

This converts the argument to String type. Trying to convert undefined and null to Object type will result in TypeError exception.

An interesting thing to note about JavaScript is a numeric character within quotes gets converted to Number type in the below scenario:

var varA = "8"+"0";
console.log(varA); //80
console.log("typeof varA is " + (typeof varA));//typeof varA is string 
// this is a way of string concatenation in Javascript

var varB = +"8" + +"0"
console.log(varB);//8
console.log("typeof varB is " + (typeof varB));//typeof varB is number

varC = "88";
console.log(typeof +varC);//number

Also we have spoke about the Reference Specification Type , now it is important to note that :

Primitive types in JavaScript are always passed by value

Objects types in JavaScript are always passed by reference

Let's see examples to prove this:

var a = 20;
var b = a;
console.log(a);// 20
console.log(b);// 20
a= 90;
console.log(a);// 90
console.log(b);// 20

Here when the assignment var b = a; was done, JavaScript executed this code in the below steps:

1. Create a variable reference.
2. Add the named reference of the variable created in step 1 as b
3. Copy the value of variable referenced by the named reference a to the variable with named reference b

Let's see another example of primitives:

var c = 77;// 77
console.log(c);
function ChangeNum(x){
    x = 88;
}
ChangeNum(c);
console.log(c);// 77

This further proves our point. Now let us try it on Object and Object properties:

var objB = objA;
console.log(objA);//{ prop1: 'aProp' }
console.log(objB);//{ prop1: 'aProp' }
//now we will change "prop1" property of object referenced by objB and see if objA also gets changed
objB.prop1 = "bProp";
console.log(objA);//{ prop1: 'bProp' }
console.log(objB);//{ prop1: 'bProp' }

This confirms that objects get passed around by reference. Now let us assign a different object to objA. In this case will objB loose the reference to the previous object? Let's see

objA = {
    differentProp1 : "differentA"
}
console.log(objA);//{ differentProp1: 'differentA' }
console.log(objB);//{ prop1: 'bProp' }

No it does not. It is still pointing to the same memory location as it was earlier. but objA now points to a different location in the memory because the = operator changes the reference named objA to a new location in the memory.

function ChangeObjectProp(o){
    o.prop1 = "changedProp";
}
ChangeObjectProp(objB);
console.log(objB);//{ prop1: 'changedProp' }

Here the formal parameter to the function ChangeObjectProp holds the reference same as what objB holds. And because of this the original object got modified which again confirms that the object was passed by reference.

Now we have seen the Reference Specification type and how type conversions will behave in the world of JavaScript, we will move on to a core concept of Lexical Environment and Scope in our next post.