JavaScript Strings

Strings are for storing text

Strings are written with quotes

Share

Using Quotes

A JavaScript string is zero or more characters written inside quotes.

Example

let text = "John Doe";

You can use single or double quotes:

Example

let carName1 = "Volvo XC60";
  // Double quotes

let carName2 = 'Volvo XC60';  // Single quotes

Quotes Inside Quotes

You can use quotes inside a string, as long as they don't match the quotes surrounding the string:

Example

let answer1 = "It's alright";

let answer2 = "He is called 'Johnny'";

let answer3 = 'He is called "Johnny"';

Template Strings

Templates were introduced with ES6 (JavaScript 2016).

Templates are strings enclosed in backticks (This is a template string).

Templates allow single and double quotes inside a string:

Example

let text = `He's often called "Johnny"`;

String Length

To find the length of a string, use the built-in length property:

Example

let text = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";

let length = text.length;

Escape Characters

Because strings must be written within quotes, JavaScript will misunderstand this string:

Example

let text = "We are the so-called "Vikings" from the north.";

The string will be chopped to "We are the so-called ".

To solve this problem, you can use an backslash escape character.

The backslash escape character (\) turns special characters into string characters:

Examples

let text = "We are the so-called \"Vikings\" from the north.";

Six other escape sequences are valid in JavaScript:

Breaking Long Lines

For readability, programmers often like to avoid long code lines.

A safe way to break up a statement is after an operator:

Example

document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML =
"Hello Dolly!";

A safe way to break up a string is by using string addition:

Example

document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = "Hello " +
"Dolly!";

Template Strings

Templates were introduced with ES6 (JavaScript 2015).

Templates are strings enclosed in backticks (This is a template string).

Templates allow multiline strings:

Example

let text =

`The quick

brown fox

jumps over

the lazy dog`;

JavaScript Strings as Objects

Normally, JavaScript strings are primitive values, created from literals:

Example

let x = "John";

But strings can also be defined as objects with the keyword new:

Example

let y = new String("John");

Example

let x = "John";

let y = new String("John");

Example

let x = "John";

let y = new String("John");

Example

let x = "John";

let y = new String("John");

Example

let x = new String("John");

let y = new String("John");

Example

let x = new String("John");

let y = new String("John");