Everything new in JavaScript since ES6

by Max Rohde,

It is no secret that things in the tech world change rather rapidly. It's difficult to keep track of everything at the same time. For instance I have been working with JavaScript quite extensively some years ago but recently have been more involved with other tech stacks. Thus I have only followed the developments in the JavaScript world sporadically and was quite surprised by how many things have changed since the days of JavaScript: The Good Parts.

Since before ES6 things have not changed much for a long time, I imagine I am not the only one who could benefit from a little refresher of all the things that have changed since ES6. Thus I have compiled some of the changes I think are most important for ordinary development work. The idea is to provide a quick overview rather than explain every feature in detail - assuming that more information on any of the changes is readily available on the web.

This is not a complete list of everything that has changed. For instance, I included promises but omitted changes made to the way regular expressions work in ECMAScript 2018; since we are likely to come across promises many times per day whereas the changes to regular expressions only affect us in particular edge cases.

ECMAScript 6 / ECMAScript 2015

Variable Scoping

  • let x = 1;: To define block scoped variables

Arrow Functions

  • x => x + 1: Concise closure syntax
  • x => { return x + 1; }: Concise closure syntax
  • this: within lambdas refers to enclosing object (rather than to lambda function itself)

Promises

Promises for wrapping asynchronous code.

let p = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
  resolve('hello');
});

p.then((msg) => console.log(msg));

Executing asynchronous operations in parallel

let parallelOperation = Promise.all([p1, p2]);
parallelOperation.then((data) => {
  let [res1, res2] = data;
});

Default Parameters and Spread Operator

  • function (x = 1, y = 2): Default values for function parameters
  • function (x, y, ...arr) {}: Capturing all remaining arguments in array for variadic functions
  • var newarr = [ 1, 2, ...oldarr]: 'Spreading' of elements from an array as literal elements
  • multiply(1, 2, ...arr): Spreading of elements from an array as individual function parameters

Multiline Strings and Templates

  • `My String⏎NewLine`: Multi-line string literals
  • `Hello ${person.name}`: Intuitive string interpolation
  • const proc = sh`kill -9 ${pid}`;: Tagged template literals for parsing custom languages. The example would result in calling the function sh with the parameters (['kill -9 '], pid)

Object Properties

  • let obj = { x, y }: Property shorthand for defining let object = { x: x, y: y }
  • obj = { func1 (x, y) { } }: Methods allowed as object properties

Deconstructor Assignment

  • var [ x, y, z ] = list: Deconstructing arrays into individual variables by assignment.
  • var [ x=0, y=0 ]: Default values for deconstructing arrays.
  • function( [ x, y ] ): Deconstructing arrays in function calls.
  • var { x, y, z } = getPoint(): Deconstructing objects into individual variables by assignment.
  • var { name: name, address: { street: street }, age: age} = getData(): Deconstructing objects into individual variables by assignment, including nested properties.
  • var p = { x=0, y=0 }: Default values for deconstructing objects.
  • function( { x, y } ): Deconstructing objects in function calls.

Modularity

  • export function add(x,y) { return x + y; }: Exporting functions
  • export var universe = 42;: Exporting variables
  • import { add, universe } from 'lib/module';: Importing functions and variables
  • import * from 'lib/module': Wildcard import
  • export default (x, y) => x + y;: Defining default export
  • import add from 'lib/add': Importing default export
  • import add, { universe } from 'lib/add': Importing default export and additional exports
  • export * from 'lib/module';: Reexporting from other modules

Classes

class keyword for constructing simple classes.

class Point {
  constructor(x, y) {
    this.x = x;
    this.y = y;
  }

  move(deltax, deltay) {
    new Point(this.x + deltax, this.y + deltay);
  }
}

extends keyword for extending classes:



class Car extends Vehicle {

  constructor (name) {
     super(name);
  }

static keyword for static methods

class Math {
  static add(x, y) {
    return x + y;
  }
}

get and set keywords for decorated property access.



class Rectangle {

  get area() { return this.x * this.y }

}

...

new Rectangle(2, 2).area === 4;

Iteration Through Object Values

  • for (let value of arr) { }: for ... of loop for going iterating through values of objects.
  • Also note that objects can define their own iterators and generators

Data Structures

  • new Set(): For sets
  • new Map(): For maps
  • new WeakSet(): For sets whose items will be garbage collected when required
  • new WeakMap(): For sets whose items will be garbage collected when required

Symbols

  • Symbol(): For creating an object with a unique identity.
  • Symbol("note"): For creating a unique object with a descriptor.
  • Note: Symbol("node") !== Symbol("node")

ECMAScript 2016

  • **: Exponentiation operator
  • Array.prototypes.includes: Like indexOf but with true/false result and support for NaN

ECMAScript 2017

async/await for more expressive asynchronous operations

async function add1(x) {
  return x + 1;
}

async function add2(x) {
  let y = await add1(x);
  return await add1(y);
}

add2(5).then(console.log);

ECMAScript 2018

Rest/Spread Operators for Object Properties

Collect all not deconstructed properties from an object in another object:

var person = { firstName: 'Paul', lastName: 'Hendricks', password: 'secret' };
var { password, ...sanitisedPerson } = person;
// sanitisedPerson = {firstName: "Paul", lastName: "Hendricks"}

Spread object properties

let details = { firstName: 'Paul', lastName: 'Hendricks' };

let user = { ...details, password: 'secret' };

Finally for Promises

finally callback is guaranteed to be executed if promise succeeds or fails.



async function sayHello() {
console.log("hello");
}
sayHello().then(() => console.log("success") )
.catch((e) => console.log(e))
.finally(() => console.log("runs always")

for await Loop

Special for loops that resolve promises before every iteration.

const promises = [
  new Promise((resolve) => resolve(1)),
  new Promise((resolve) => resolve(2)),
];

async function runAll() {
  for await (p of promises) {
    console.log(p);
  }
}

runAll();

References

Image credits: Flickr

Categories: javascript