variable === undefined vs. typeof variable === “undefined” in JavaScript

Last Updated : 19 Jul, 2019

Undefined comes into a picture when any variable is defined already but not has been assigned any value. Undefined is not a keyword. A function can also be undefined when it doesn’t have the value returned.
There are two ways to determine if a variable is not defined, Value and type.

var geeks; 
alert ( geeks === undefined) 

It’s so clear that you assigned a variable that was not defined but the variable exists. Here you are comparing geeks variable with the global variable “undefined” which is undefined also.
Syntax:

Check by Value (Strict equality Operator): Here you will get that variable is assigned a value or not if the variable is not assigned a value it will display undefined.

    variable === undefined

Check the type (Typeof operator): Here you will get what type of variable was that if there is no variable was assigned then it will display “undefined”.

    typeof variable

Note The strict equality operator (===) doesn’t check whether the variable is null or not.The typeof operator does not throw an error if the variable has not been declared.

Example: Here we assign two variable one is undefined and the other one is defined “null”, here null is not undefined when you put console.log it will show “null” if you check typeoff then it will display object, below program will illustrate the approach more clearly.
Program:

var firstName; 
var lastName = null; 
  
// Print: undefined         
console.log(firstName);  
// Print: null 
console.log(lastName);   
          
// Print: undefined 
console.log(typeof firstName); 
// Print: object  
console.log(typeof lastName);   
          
// Print: false 
console.log(null === undefined)  
          
if(firstName === undefined) { 
        console.log('LastName is undefined'); 
     } else if(firstName === null){ 
        console.log('FirstName is null'); 
     } 

Output:

undefined
null

undefined
object

false

variable === undefined VS typeof variable === “undefined”

variable === undefined	typeof variable === “undefined”
Here the assigned variables don’t have any value but the variable exists.	Here the type of variable is undefined.
If you assigned a value(var geeks === undefined ) it will show, if not it will also show undefined but in different meaning.	Here the undefined is the typeof undefined.
In this, null will display if you assigned null to a variable, null is loosely equals to undefined	But here typeof will show object.

My Personal Notes

Related Articles