Logical Assignment Operators

By  on  

I love JavaScript, it's my favorite programming language, but I love dipping into other languages because they offer a new perspective on coding paradigms. There've been syntax additions to JavaScript that I've seen I found interesting (think ?? in optional chaining) and now we get more -- logical assignment operators. Let's check out how they can be used!

||=

Or-Or-Equals is used to assign a value when one doesn't exist:

let name;
const defaultName = "Guest";

name ||= defaultName;
// name >> "Guest"

// Equivalent: name || (name = defaultName);

??=

Question-Question-Equals assigns value when the value is undefined:

const j = 1;
j??= 10
// j >> 1

x = undefined;
x ??= 10
// x >> 10

&&=

And-And-Equals assigns value to the last in line when both are defined:

let name;
const defaultName = "Guest";

name &&= defaultName;
name >> undefined

// Both have values
let name = "David";
const defaultName = "Guest";

name &&= defaultName;
// name >> "Guest"

// Equivalent: name && (name = defaultName);

I do worry, at least in the short term, that this new syntax could be hard to maintain, but just like every other new language feature, we'll get used to it!

Recent Features

Incredible Demos

  • By
    MooTools TwitterGitter Plugin

    Everyone loves Twitter. Everyone loves MooTools. That's why everyone should love TwitterGitter, a MooTools plugin that retrieves a user's recent tweets and allows the user to format them however the user would like. TwitterGitter allows the user to choose the number of...

  • By
    Build a Slick and Simple MooTools Accordion

    Last week I covered a smooth, subtle MooTools effect called Kwicks. Another great MooTools creation is the Accordion, which acts like...wait for it...an accordion! Now I've never been a huge Weird Al fan so this is as close to playing an accordion as...

Discussion

    Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!