Var, let and const- what's the difference?

A lot of shiny new features came with ES2015 (ES6) and since it's 2017, it's assumed that a lot of JavaScript developers have become familiar with and have started using these features. While this assumption might be true, it's still possible that some of these features remain a mystery to some.

One of the features that came with ES6 is addition of let and const which can be used for variable declaration. The question now is, what makes them different from our good ol' var which has been in use? If you are still not clear about this, this article is for you.

In this article, var, let and const will be discussed with respect to their scope, use and hoisting. As you read, take note of the differences between them I'll point out.

VAR

Before the advent of ES6, var declarations ruled as King. There are issues associated with variables declared with var though. That is why it was necessary for new ways to declare variables to emerge. First though, let us get to understand var more before we discuss one of such issues.

Scope of var

Scope essentially means where these variables are available for use. var declarations are globally scoped or function/locally scoped. It is globally scoped when a var variable is declared outside a function. This means that any variable that is declared with var outside a function block is available for use in the whole window. var is function scoped when it is declared within a function. This means that it is available and can be accessed only within that function.
To understand further, look at the example below.

    var greeter = "hey hi";

    function newFunction() {
        var hello = "hello";
    }

Here, greeter is globally scoped because it exists outside a function while hello is function scoped. So we cannot access the variable hello outside of a function. So if we do this:

    var tester = "hey hi";

    function newFunction() {
        var hello = "hello";
    }
    console.log(hello); // error: hello is not defined

We'll get an error which is as a result of hello not being available outside the function.

var variables can be re-declared and updated

That means that we can do this within the same scope and won't get an error.

    var greeter = "hey hi";
    var greeter = "say Hello instead";

and this also

    var greeter = "hey hi";
    greeter = "say Hello instead";

Hoisting of var

Hoisting is a JavaScript mechanism where variables and function declarations are moved to the top of their scope before code execution. What this means is that if we do this:

    console.log (greeter);
    var greeter = "say hello"

it is interpreted as this

    var greeter;
    console.log(greeter); //greeter is undefined
    greeter = "say hello"

So var variables are hoisted to the top of its scope and initialized with a value of undefined.

Problem with var

There's a weakness that comes with var. I'll use the example below to explain this.

    var greeter = "hey hi";
    var times = 4;

    if (times > 3) {
        var greeter = "say Hello instead"; 
    }

    console.log(greeter) //"say Hello instead"

So, since times > 3 returns true, greeter is redefined to "say Hello instead". While this is not a problem if you knowingly want greeter to be redefined, it becomes a problem when you do not realize that a variable greeter has already been defined before.
If you have use greeter in other parts of your code, you might be surprised at the output you might get. This might cause a lot of bugs in your code. This is why the let and const is necessary.

LET

let is preferred for variable declaration now. It's no surprise as it comes as an improvement to the var declarations. It also solves this problem that was raised in the last subheading. Let's consider why this is so.

let is block scoped

A block is chunk of code bounded by {}. A block lives in curly braces. Anything within curly braces is a block. So a variable declared in a block with the let is only available for use within that block. Let me explain this with an example.

   let greeting = "say Hi";
   let times = 4;

   if (times > 3) {
        let hello = "say Hello instead";
        console.log(hello);//"say Hello instead"
    }
   console.log(hello) // hello is not defined

We see that using hello outside its block(the curly braces where it was defined) returns an error. This is because let variables are block scoped .

let can be updated but not re-declared.

Just like var, a variable declared with let can be updated within its scope. Unlikevar, a let variable cannot be re-declared within its scope. So while this will work,

    let greeting = "say Hi";
    greeting = "say Hello instead";

this will return an error.

    let greeting = "say Hi";
    let greeting = "say Hello instead";//error: Identifier 'greeting' has already been declared

However, if the same variable is defined in different scopes, there will be no error.

    let greeting = "say Hi";
    if (true) {
        let greeting = "say Hello instead";
        console.log(greeting);//"say Hello instead"
    }
    console.log(greeting);//"say Hi"

Why is there no error? This is because both instances are treated as different variables since they have different scopes.

This fact makes let a better choice than var. When using let, you don't have to bother if you have used a name for a variable before as a variable exists only within its scope. Also, since a variable cannot be declared more than once within a scope, then the problem discussed earlier that occurs with var does not occur.

Hoisting of let
Just like var, let declarations are hoisted to the top. Unlike var which is initialized as undefined, the let keyword is not initialized. So if you try to use a let variable before declaration, you'll get a Reference Error.

CONST

Variables declared with the const maintain constant values. const declarations share some similarities with let declarations.

const declarations are block scoped

Like let declarations, const declarations can only be accessed within the block it was declared.

const cannot be updated or re-declared

This means that the value of a variable declared with const remains the same within its scope. It cannot be updated or re-declared. So if we declare a variable with const, we can neither do this

    const greeting = "say Hi";
    greeting = "say Hello instead";//error : Assignment to constant variable. 

nor this

    const greeting = "say Hi";
    const greeting = "say Hello instead";//error : Identifier 'greeting' has already been declared

Every const declaration therefore, must be initialized at the time of declaration.
This behavior is somehow different when it comes to objects declared with const. While a const object cannot be updated, the properties of this objects can be updated. Therefore, if we declare a const object as this

    const greeting = {
        message : "say Hi",
        times : 4
    }

while we cannot do this

    const greeting = {
        words : "Hello",
        number : "five"
    }//error :  Assignment to constant variable.

we can do this

    greeting.message = "say Hello instead";

This will update the value of greeting.message without returning errors.

Hoisting of const

Just like let, const declarations are hoisted to the top but are not initialized.

So just in case, you missed the differences, here they are :

1. var declarations are globally scoped or function scoped while let and const are block scoped.

2. var variables can be updated and re-declared within its scope; let variables can be updated but not re-declared; const variables can neither be updated nor re-declared.

3. They are all hoisted to the top of their scope but while varvariables are initialized with undefined, let and const variables are not initialized.

4. While var and let can be declared without being initialized, const must be initialized during declaration.

Got any question or addition? please leave a comment.

Thank you for reading :)

Comments

[abhijeetckar92]

this is a good article..however you should update your last example
const flow = {
message : "say Hi",
times : 4
}

to

const greeting = {
message : "say Hi",
times : 4
}

don't know how anybody who's reading this article missed that!

[Abdu Shaker]

I noticed something did not add up but I didn't pay attention to the details since I got what I was looking for. Good catch, tho.

[Bkmillanzi]

left me in blanks... I am glad you had pointed it out! Thanks'
and btw, the article is indeed one of the best!

[Sarah Chima]

thank you

[rama-chowdary]

Yeah

[Ansh]

It's updated now. Thanks for notifying

[Dominic Sears]

For a noob like me, this explained "let" declarations for me.

[Sarah Chima]

I'm glad it did.

[Jens Genberg]

Good post. I wasn't sure about these. Just knew that 'var' should be avoided.

I think you have typo here. Remove the second 'let' from the first code block. :)
So while this will work,
let greeting = "say Hi";
let greeting = "say Hello instead";
this will return an error.
let greeting = "say Hi";
let greeting = "say Hello instead";//error: Identifier 'greeting' has already been declared

[Sarah Chima]

Thanks a lot for pointing that out. I'll correct it right away.

[itayko]

Thank for a great article

Error still exists in the article..

[Ashley Brandon]

Why should var be avoided?

[Scott Mallon]

'Var' allows for re-declarations in code which does not throw errors and can create unintended side-effects in your code.

'Let' allows for variable reassignment but not for duplicate declarations (block-scoped), much like strongly typed languages like C# and Java.

'Const' allows for declaration once and for assignment once, and can never be re-declared or reassigned (block-scoped). For instance, I use 'const' for inline function declarations, so that I don't accidentally redefine this function's behavior at some later point in time by mistake. Even though I am unlikely to do so, it is just safer for myself and others to work on.

To paraphrase Sarah more generically:

"While it is not a problem if you knowingly want a var to be a certain value at a certain point in code, it becomes a problem when you do not realize that this same var has already been declared/defined before or, even worse, has had other functions operate on this var without your knowledge."

So, in other words, it's a much better idea to use 'let' and 'const' in order have safer control over your variables and constants.

[Oiza]

This was incredibly helpful, and a great TLDR!

[Mushin108]

"Variable shadowing"

[Joel Olawanle]

const alone does not guarantee protection for your data or let me say it does not protect your data from mutation,

Example:

const GREETING = {
    name : "Joel",
    info : "Goodday!"
 }

Though the above code makes use of const i can still update the values via the code below

GREETING.name = "Elijah";

But this could easily be avoided by making use of Object.freeze() to freeze our const variables.
Just add this line of code and you will discover that the values cannot be updated.

Object.freeze(GREETING); 

GREETING.name = "Elijah"; // This will now be ignored due to mutation

For more clarification check: freecodecamp.org/learn/javascript-...

[Ariel]

Hi, great article but I think you have a mistake about the hoisting,you wrote:
"They are all hoisted to the top of their scope but while var varvariables are initialized with undefined, let and const variables are not initialized."
If you will look at the JavaScript Hoisting section in w3schools.com website,
you will notice that:"Variables and constants declared with let or const are not hoisted!"
Please check in:
w3schools.com/js/js_hoisting.asp

[Siddharath shankar bhardwaj]

That's exactly I m thinking the new let and const in javascript are not hoisted..she wrote wrong things..u should correct this article..do not mislead people with this ??

[Mohammed]

According to MDN and ECMA 2015 her words are right
check this developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/W...

[Wolf00Bomber]

The article is well written, but the problem is with the visualization of the concepts, if only these were depicted in pictorial or tabular format, can have immense effect on readers. Thanks for the article thought.

[Mark Duff]

Years later, this is still the most concise explanation and welcomed even by those of us who are not lightweights - but don't stray into the JS badlands much. You have great teacher chromosomes, Sarah. Ignore the nit-pickers - this is still the best explanation primarily because of its brevity.

[Sarah Chima]

Thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate it.

[gamebecks]

Hi, you have said that variable declared as var will have global scope if declared outside a function. But the same can even be said for variables declared as let and const. They indeed are locally scoped but when done outside a function, they will have global scope like var.
Please correct me if am wrong?

[NickSu86]

Thank you for your post, I am a newbie to Nodejs and quite confusing on when to use let, const or var. As I saw some require a module with var while some with const, could you advise which is better when requiring a module? After reading your post, I think const is better to require another module because it will never change.
One more question could you please do me a favor to explain the memory usage between these three, is there any different other than scope, thank you

[Ayush Jain]

That's a great article. Inspired me to write:

Var is function-scoped and not block-scoped which means that constructs like if statements, while loops etc do not create new scopes while using var. It also means that, as var is function-scoped, if we do not create a function, we do not create new scope while using var.

Read More here:

Var vs Let in JavaScript