How can I check for “undefined” in JavaScript? [duplicate]

Answer 1

I personally use

myVar === undefined

Warning: Please note that === is used over == and that myVar has been previously declared (not defined).

---

I do not like typeof myVar === "undefined". I think it is long winded and unnecessary. (I can get the same done in less code.)

Now some people will keel over in pain when they read this, screaming: "Wait! WAAITTT!!! undefined can be redefined!"

Cool. I know this. Then again, most variables in Javascript can be redefined. Should you never use any built-in identifier that can be redefined?

If you follow this rule, good for you: you aren't a hypocrite.

The thing is, in order to do lots of real work in JS, developers need to rely on redefinable identifiers to be what they are. I don't hear people telling me that I shouldn't use setTimeout because someone can

window.setTimeout = function () {
    alert("Got you now!");
};

Bottom line, the "it can be redefined" argument to not use a raw === undefined is bogus.

(If you are still scared of undefined being redefined, why are you blindly integrating untested library code into your code base? Or even simpler: a linting tool.)

---

Also, like the typeof approach, this technique can "detect" undeclared variables:

if (window.someVar === undefined) {
    doSomething();
}

But both these techniques leak in their abstraction. I urge you not to use this or even

if (typeof myVar !== "undefined") {
    doSomething();
}

Consider:

var iAmUndefined;

To catch whether or not that variable is declared or not, you may need to resort to the in operator. (In many cases, you can simply read the code O_o).

if ("myVar" in window) {
    doSomething();
}

But wait! There's more! What if some prototype chain magic is happening…? Now even the superior in operator does not suffice. (Okay, I'm done here about this part except to say that for 99% of the time, === undefined (and ****cough**** typeof) works just fine. If you really care, you can read about this subject on its own.)

Answer 2

If you are interested in finding out whether a variable has been declared regardless of its value, then using the in operator is the safest way to go. Consider this example:

// global scope
var theFu; // theFu has been declared, but its value is undefined
typeof theFu; // "undefined"

But this may not be the intended result for some cases, since the variable or property was declared but just not initialized. Use the in operator for a more robust check.

"theFu" in window; // true
"theFoo" in window; // false

If you are interested in knowing whether the variable hasn't been declared or has the value undefined, then use the typeof operator, which is guaranteed to return a string:

if (typeof myVar !== 'undefined')

Direct comparisons against undefined are troublesome as undefined can be overwritten.

window.undefined = "foo";
"foo" == undefined // true

As @CMS pointed out, this has been patched in ECMAScript 5th ed., and undefined is non-writable.

if (window.myVar) will also include these falsy values, so it's not very robust:

false
0
""
NaN
null
undefined

Thanks to @CMS for pointing out that your third case - if (myVariable) can also throw an error in two cases. The first is when the variable hasn't been defined which throws a ReferenceError.

// abc was never declared.
if (abc) {
    // ReferenceError: abc is not defined
} 

The other case is when the variable has been defined, but has a getter function which throws an error when invoked. For example,

// or it's a property that can throw an error
Object.defineProperty(window, "myVariable", { 
    get: function() { throw new Error("W00t?"); }, 
    set: undefined 
});
if (myVariable) {
    // Error: W00t?
}

Answer 3

Personally, I always use the following:

var x;
if( x === undefined) {
    //Do something here
}
else {
   //Do something else here
}

The window.undefined property is non-writable in all modern browsers (JavaScript 1.8.5 or later). From Mozilla's documentation: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/undefined, I see this: One reason to use typeof() is that it does not throw an error if the variable has not been defined.

I prefer to have the approach of using

x === undefined 

because it fails and blows up in my face rather than silently passing/failing if x has not been declared before. This alerts me that x is not declared. I believe all variables used in JavaScript should be declared.

Answer 4

The most reliable way I know of checking for undefined is to use void 0.

This is compatible with newer and older browsers, alike, and cannot be overwritten like window.undefined can in some cases.

if( myVar === void 0){
    //yup it's undefined
}

Answer 5

I use it as a function parameter and exclude it on function execution that way I get the "real" undefined. Although it does require you to put your code inside a function. I found this while reading the jQuery source.

undefined = 2;

(function (undefined) {
   console.log(undefined); // prints out undefined
   // and for comparison:
   if (undeclaredvar === undefined) console.log("it works!")
})()

Of course you could just use typeof though. But all my code is usually inside a containing function anyways, so using this method probably saves me a few bytes here and there.

Answer 6

Update 2018-07-25

It's been nearly five years since this post was first made, and JavaScript has come a long way. In repeating the tests in the original post, I found no consistent difference between the following test methods:

• abc === undefined
• abc === void 0
• typeof abc == 'undefined'
• typeof abc === 'undefined'

Even when I modified the tests to prevent Chrome from optimizing them away, the differences were insignificant. As such, I'd now recommend abc === undefined for clarity.

Relevant content from chrome://version:

• Google Chrome: 67.0.3396.99 (Official Build) (64-bit) (cohort: Stable)
• Revision: a337fbf3c2ab8ebc6b64b0bfdce73a20e2e2252b-refs/branch-heads/3396@{#790}
• OS: Windows
• JavaScript: V8 6.7.288.46
• User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/67.0.3396.99 Safari/537.36

Original post 2013-11-01

In Google Chrome, the following was ever so slightly faster than a typeof test:

if (abc === void 0) {
    // Undefined
}

The difference was negligible. However, this code is more concise, and clearer at a glance to someone who knows what void 0 means. Note, however, that abc must still be declared.

Both typeof and void were significantly faster than comparing directly against undefined. I used the following test format in the Chrome developer console:

var abc;
start = +new Date();
for (var i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) {
    if (TEST) {
        void 1;
    }
}
end = +new Date();
end - start;

The results were as follows:

Test: | abc === undefined      abc === void 0      typeof abc == 'undefined'
------+---------------------------------------------------------------------
x10M  |     13678 ms               9854 ms                 9888 ms
  x1  |    1367.8 ns              985.4 ns                988.8 ns

Note that the first row is in milliseconds, while the second row is in nanoseconds. A difference of 3.4 nanoseconds is nothing. The times were pretty consistent in subsequent tests.