null
The value null represents the intentional absence of any object value. It
is one of JavaScript's primitive values and
is treated as falsy for boolean operations.
The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.
Syntax
nullDescription
The value null is written with a literal: null.
null is not an identifier for a property of the global object, like
undefined can be. Instead,
null expresses a lack of identification, indicating that a variable points
to no object. In APIs, null is often retrieved in a place where an object
can be expected but no object is relevant.
// foo does not exist. It is not defined and has never been initialized:
foo; //ReferenceError: foo is not defined
// foo is known to exist now but it has no type or value:
var foo = null;
foo; //null
Examples
Difference between null and
undefined
When checking for null or undefined, beware of the differences
between equality (==) and identity (===) operators, as the former performs
type-conversion.
typeof null // "object" (not "null" for legacy reasons)
typeof undefined // "undefined"
null === undefined // false
null == undefined // true
null === null // true
null == null // true
!null // true
isNaN(1 + null) // false
isNaN(1 + undefined) // trueSpecifications
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser