What Is It?

When you look at JavaScript code, look closely at each part and ask yourself, “What is it?”

Is this part of the code a keyword, an operator or symbol, or an identifier? If it’s a keyword, then what is the syntax for that keyword, and how does it fit into the grammar of the overall instruction or line of code? If it’s an operator or symbol, what is the name of that operator/symbol and what is its purpose? That symbol might be there for grammatical or syntactic reasons, or it might be arithmetic, or something else entirely. Lastly, if that bit of code is an identifier, then what is its data type and its value, and how does it fit into the grammar of the statement/instruction as a whole?

Even learning how to define the terms I’ve been throwing around (syntax, grammar, identifiers, objects, etc.) will go a long way towards getting a handle on JavaScript as a language.