JavaScript (JS) is a lightweight, interpreted, or just-in-time compiled programming language with first-class functions. While it is most well-known as the scripting language for Web pages, many non-browser environments also use it, such as Node.js, Apache CouchDB and Adobe Acrobat. JavaScript is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm, single-threaded, dynamic language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and declarative (e.g. functional programming) styles. Read more about JavaScript.
This section is dedicated to the JavaScript language itself, and not the parts that are specific to Web pages or other host environments. For information about API specifics to Web pages, please see Web APIs and DOM.
The standard for JavaScript is ECMAScript. As of 2012, all modern browsers fully support ECMAScript 5.1. Older browsers support at least ECMAScript 3. On June 17, 2015, ECMA International published the sixth major version of ECMAScript, which is officially called ECMAScript 2015, and was initially referred to as ECMAScript 6 or ES6. Since then, ECMAScript standards are on yearly release cycles. This documentation refers to the latest draft version, which is currently ECMAScript 2020.
Do not confuse JavaScript with the Java programming language. Both “Java” and “JavaScript” are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle in the U.S. and other countries. However, the two programming languages have a very different syntax, semantic, and use.
Definition in Wikipedia
JavaScript (/ˈdʒɑːvəˌskrɪpt/),[6] often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that conforms to the ECMAScript specification.[7] JavaScript is high-level, often just-in-time compiled, and multi-paradigm. It has curly-bracket syntax, dynamic typing, prototype-based object-orientation, and first-class functions.
Alongside HTML and CSS, JavaScript is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web.[8] JavaScript enables interactive web pages and is an essential part of web applications. The vast majority of websites use it for client-side page behavior,[9] and all major web browsers have a dedicated JavaScript engine to execute it.
As a multi-paradigm language, JavaScript supports event-driven, functional, and imperative programming styles. It has application programming interfaces (APIs) for working with text, dates, regular expressions, standard data structures, and the Document Object Model (DOM). However, the language itself does not include any input/output (I/O), such as networking, storage, or graphics facilities, as the host environment (usually a web browser) provides those APIs.
JavaScript engines were originally used only in web browsers, but they are now embedded in some servers, usually via Node.js. They are also embedded in a variety of applications created with frameworks such as Electron and Cordova.
Although there are similarities between JavaScript and Java, including language name, syntax, and respective standard libraries, the two languages are distinct and differ greatly in design.
JavaScript is the dominant client-side scripting language of the Web, with 95% of websites using it for this purpose.[9] Scripts are embedded in or included from HTML documents and interact with the DOM. All major web browsers have a built-in JavaScript engine that executes the code on the user’s device.