2016-02-04-assignment.md

title: Assignment Operators tip-number: 35 tip-username: hsleonis tip-username-profile: https://github.com/hsleonis tip-tldr: Assigning is very common. Sometimes typing becomes time consuming for us 'Lazy programmers'. So, we can use some tricks to help us and make our code cleaner and simpler.

• /en/assignment-shorthands/

Assigning is very common. Sometimes typing becomes time consuming for us 'Lazy programmers'. So, we can use some tricks to help us and make our code cleaner and simpler.

This is the similar use of

x += 23; // x = x + 23;
y -= 15; // y = y - 15;
z *= 10; // z = z * 10;
k /= 7; // k = k / 7;
p %= 3; // p = p % 3;
d **= 2; // d = d ** 2;
m >>= 2; // m = m >> 2;
n <<= 2; // n = n << 2;
n++; // n = n + 1;
n--;
n = n - 1;

++ and -- operators

There is a special ++ operator. It's best to explain it with an example:

var a = 2;
var b = a++;
// Now a is 3 and b is 2

The a++ statement does this:

1. return the value of a
2. increment a by 1

But what if we wanted to increment the value first? It's simple:

var a = 2;
var b = ++a;
// Now both a and b are 3

See? I put the operator before the variable.

The -- operator is similar, except it decrements the value.

If-else (Using ternary operator)

This is what we write on regular basis.

var newValue;
if (value > 10) newValue = 5;
else newValue = 2;

We can user ternary operator to make it awesome:

var newValue = value > 10 ? 5 : 2;

Null, Undefined, Empty Checks

if (variable1 !== null || variable1 !== undefined || variable1 !== '') {
    var variable2 = variable1;
}

Shorthand here:

var variable2 = variable1 || '';

P.S.: If variable1 is a number, then first check if it is 0.

Object Array Notation

Instead of using:

var a = new Array();
a[0] = 'myString1';
a[1] = 'myString2';

Use this:

var a = ['myString1', 'myString2'];

Associative array

Instead of using:

var skillSet = new Array();
skillSet['Document language'] = 'HTML5';
skillSet['Styling language'] = 'CSS3';

Use this:

var skillSet = {
    'Document language': 'HTML5',
    'Styling language': 'CSS3'
};