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up vote 424 down vote favorite
199

Possible Duplicate:
Detecting an undefined object property in JavaScript

I wanted to check whether the variable is defined or not. For example, the following throws a not-defined error 

alert( x );

How can I catch this error?

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marked as duplicate by casperOne♦ Jan 12 '12 at 4:59

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
3  
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/519145/how-to-check-whether-a-javascript-var‌​iable-defined/519157#519157 –  jim0thy May 13 '09 at 14:26
4  
Looks like this is a granddaddy: stackoverflow.com/questions/1485840/… stackoverflow.com/questions/2647867/… - great gramps maybe this: stackoverflow.com/questions/27509/… –  random Apr 19 '10 at 15:52

5 Answers 5

up vote 949 down vote accepted

In JavaScript, null is an object. There's another value for things that don't exist, undefined. The DOM returns null for almost all cases where it fails to find some structure in the document, but in JavaScript itself undefined is the value used.

Second, no, there is not a direct equivalent. If you really want to check for null, do:

if (null == yourvar) // With casting
if (null === yourvar) // Without casting

If you want to check if a variable exists

if (typeof yourvar != 'undefined') // Any scope
if (window['varname'] != undefined) // Global scope
if (window['varname'] != void 0) // Old browsers

If you know the variable exists, but don't know if there's any value stored in it:

if (undefined != yourvar)
if (void 0 != yourvar) // For older browsers

If you want to know if a member exists independent of whether it has been assigned a value or not:

if ('membername' in object) // With inheritance
if (object.hasOwnProperty('membername')) // Without inheritance

If you want to to know whether a variable autocasts to true:

if(variablename)

I probably forgot some method as well...

Source

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48  
undefined is not a reserved word; you (or someone else's code) can do "undefined = 3" and that will break two of your tests. –  Jason S May 13 '09 at 14:14
4  
"If you know the variable exists but don't know if there's any value stored in it" -- huh?! –  Jason S May 13 '09 at 14:20
24  
I think he is referring to a variable declared that has not been assigned to. eg: var foo; // foo exists but does not have a value –  Wally Lawless May 13 '09 at 14:29
8  
I think you need to quantify 'old browsers'. –  bobobobo May 16 '10 at 22:58
4  
"In JavaScript null is an object.", that's not actually true, and probably, the culprit of this misconception is the typeof operator (typeof null == 'object'). The null value is a primitive value, which is the only value of the Null type. –  CMS Oct 13 '11 at 7:29
up vote 182 down vote

The only way to truly test if a variable is undefined is to do the following. Remember, undefined is an object in JavaScript.

if (typeof someVar === 'undefined') {
  // Your variable is undefined
}

Some of the other solutions in this thread will lead you to believe a variable is undefined even though it has been defined (with a value of NULL or 0, for instance).

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5  
this is the only answer that worked –  Jason Nov 29 '11 at 1:57
7  
Because the question was IS NOT UNDEFINED here should be typeof someVar !== 'undefined', right? –  eomeroff Aug 6 '12 at 9:14
    
Really, I don't think so that undefinded is an object, check documentation first developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Data_structures –  Nicramus Sep 14 '14 at 15:42
up vote 39 down vote

Technically, the proper solution is (I believe):

typeof x === "undefined"

You can sometimes get lazy and use

x == null

but that allows both an undefined variable x, and a variable x containing null, to return true.

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up vote 11 down vote

An even easier and more shorthand version would be:

if (!x) {
   //Undefined
}

OR

if (typeof x !== "undefined") {
    //Do something since x is defined.
}
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15  
the first code-piece can be incorrect if x is being set from a function call. like x = A(); if A doesnt return anything, it will return "undefined" by default. Doing a !x would be true which would be logically correct. However, if A() returns 0 then !x should be false as x=0. However in JS, !0 is also true. –  Rajat Dec 30 '09 at 0:49
    
the second code can be shortened to: if(!typeof(XX)){ ... }else{ ... } –  Alejandro Silva Jun 6 '14 at 21:53
1  
@AlejandroSilva Sorry for late reply. That won't work since typeof returns a string, so it will return 'undefined' for an undefined variable, which in turn will evaluate as TRUE therefore leading to a false positive of a defined var. –  Dmitri Farkov Mar 17 at 20:29
up vote 8 down vote

I've often done:

function doSomething(variable)
{
    var undef;

    if(variable === undef)
    {
         alert('Hey moron, define this bad boy.');
    }
}
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7  
Consider changing "==" to "===". If you call doSomething(null) you will also get the alert. Unless that's what you want. –  Jason S May 13 '09 at 15:51
    
Yep. You have to decide if you want equivalent or exactly equal. Either case could have a use. –  Joe Jul 7 '11 at 15:41

protected by Starx Apr 25 '12 at 8:45

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