JavaScript Absolute Beginner's Guide No experience necessary! Make the most of JavaScript -- even if you've never programmed anything before. This book is the fastest way to learn JavaScript and use it together with CSS3 and HTML5 to create powerful web and mobile experiences. Learn how to do what you want, the way you want, one incredibly easy step at a time. JavaScript has never been this simple! This is the easiest, most practical beginner’s guide to programming JavaScript with simple, reliable instructions for doing everything you really want to do! Here’s a small sample of what you’ll learn: Learn why JavaScript is awesome Organize your code with variables Understand how functions make your code reusable Use the popular if/else statement to help make a decision in code Learn about switch statements and when to use them Work with for, while, and do...while loops Learn how to use global and local scope  Understand what closures are  Learn about the various places your code can live  Understand how to write comments and good commenting practices Learn about the basic types of objects you'll run into in JavaScript Find out that pizza has an educational value beyond just being deliciously awesome Understand how text is treated in JavaScript  Learn how to perform common string operations Use arrays to handle lists of data Learn to create custom objects Purchase of JavaScript Absolute Beginner's Guide in any format includes free access to the online Web Edition, which provides several special features to help you learn: The complete text of the book online Short videos by the author introducing each chapter Interactive quizzes to test your understanding of the material Updates and corrections as they become available This Web Edition can be viewed on all types of computers and mobile devices with any modern web browser that supports HTML5. Contents at a Glance 1 Hello, World! Part I: The Basic Stuff 2 Values and Variables 3 Functions 4 Conditional Statements: If, Else, and Switch 5 Meet the Loops: For, While, and Do…While! 6 Timers 7 Variable Scope 8 Closures 9 Where Should Your Code Live? 10 Commenting Your Code Part II: It’s an Object-Oriented World 11 Of Pizza, Types, Primitives, and Objects 12 Strings 13 When Primitives Behave Like Objects 14 Arrays 15 Numbers 16 A Deeper Look at Objects 17 Extending Built-in Objects 18 Booleans and the Stricter === and !== Operators 19 Null and Undefined 20 Immediately Invoked Function Expressions Part III: Working with the DOM 21 JS, The Browser, and The DOM 22 Finding Elements in the DOM 23 Modifying DOM Elements 24 Styling Your Content 25 Traversing the DOM 26 Creating and Removing DOM Elements 27 In-Browser Developer Tools Part IV: Dealing with Events 28 Events 29 Event Bubbling and Capturing 30 Mouse Events 31 Keyboard Events 32 Page Load Events and Other Stuff 33 Handling Events for Multiple Elements 34 Conclusion

Table of Contents:
Introduction     1 Parlez-vous JavaScript?     2 Contacting Me/Getting Help     4 Chapter 1  Hello, World!     5 What Is JavaScript?     7 A Simple Example     8     Code Editing Tools     8     The HTML Document     9 Looking at the Code: Statements and Functions     10 PART I:  THE BASIC STUFF Chapter 2  Values and Variables     13 Using Variables     14 More Variable Stuff     15     Naming Variables     15     More on Declaring and Initializing Variables     16 Chapter 3  Functions     19 What Is a Function?     22     A Simple Function     22 Creating a Function That Takes Arguments     24 Creating a Function That Returns Data     27     The Return Keyword     27     Exiting the Function Early     28 Chapter 4  Conditional Statements: If, Else, and Switch     31 The If/Else Statement     32     Meet the Conditional Operators     34     Creating More Complex Expressions     36     Variations on the If/Else Statement     38     Phew     39 Switch Statements     39     Using a Switch Statement     39     Similarity to an If/Else Statement     42 Deciding Which to Use     44 Chapter 5  Meet the Loops: For, While, and Do…While!     47 The for Loop     49     The Starting Condition     51     Terminating Condition (aka Are we done yet?)     51     Reaching the End     51     Putting It All Together     52 Some for Loop Examples     52     Stopping a Loop Early     53     Skipping an Iteration     53     Going Backwards     54     You Don’t Have to Use Numbers     54     Array! Array! Array!     54     Oh No He Didn’t!     55 The Other Loops     55     The while Loop     56     The do…while Loop     56 Chapter 6  Timers     59 Meet the Three Timers     60     Delaying with setTimeout     60     Looping with setInterval     61     Animating Smoothly with requestAnimationFrame     62 Chapter 7  Variable Scope     67 Global Scope     68 Local Scope     70 Miscellaneous Scoping Shenanigans     71     Declarations Using var Do Not Support Block Scoping     71 How JavaScript Processes Variables     72 Closures     74 Chapter 8  Closures     77 Functions within Functions     78 When the Inner Functions Aren’t Self-Contained     81 Chapter 9  Where Should Your Code Live?     89 The Options on the Table     90 Approach #1: All the Code Lives in Your HTML Document     92 Approach #2: The Code Lives in a Separate File     93     The JavaScript File     93     Referencing the JavaScript File     94 So Which Approach to Use?     97     Yes, My Code Will Be Used on Multiple Documents!     97     No, My Code Is Used Only Once, on a Single HTML Document!     99 Chapter 10  Commenting Your Code     101 What Are Comments?     102     Single Line Comments     103     Multi-line Comments     104 Commenting Best Practices     106 PART II:  IT’S AN OBJECT-ORIENTED WORLD Chapter 11  Of Pizza, Types, Primitives, and Objects     109 Let’s First Talk About Pizza     110 From Pizza to JavaScript     113 What Are Objects?     115 The Predefined Objects Roaming Around     117 Chapter 12  Strings     121 The Basics     122 String Properties and Methods     124     Accessing Individual Characters     124     Combining (aka Concatenating) Strings     125     Making Substrings out of Strings     126     Splitting a String/split     128     Finding Something Inside a String     129     Upper and Lower Casing Strings     130 Chapter 13  When Primitives Behave Like Objects     133 Strings Aren’t the Only Problem     134 Let’s Pick on Strings Anyway     134 Why This Matters     137 Chapter 14  Arrays     139 Creating an Array     140 Accessing Array Values     141 Adding Items to Your Array     143 Removing Items from the Array     145 Finding Items in the Array     146 Merging Arrays     147 Chapter 15  Numbers     149 Using a Number     150 Operators     151     Doing Simple Math     151     Incrementing and Decrementing     152 Special Values—Infinity and NaN     153     Infinity     153     NaN     154 The Math Object     154     The Constants     155     Rounding Numbers     157     Trigonometric Functions     158     Powers and Square Roots     158     Getting the Absolute Value     159     Random Numbers        59 Chapter 16  A Deeper Look at Objects     161 Meet the Object     162     Creating Objects     163     Specifying Properties     167 Creating Custom Objects     169 The this Keyword     175 Chapter 17  Extending Built-in Objects     179 Say Hello to Prototype…Again—Sort of!     181 Extending Built-in Objects Is Controversial     185     You Don’t Control the Built-in Object’s Future     186     Some Functionality Should Not Be Extended or Overridden     186 Chapter 18  Booleans and the Stricter === and !== Operators     189 The Boolean Object     190 The Boolean Function     190 Strict Equality and Inequality Operators     192 Chapter 19  Null and Undefined     195 Null     196 Undefined     197 Chapter 20  Immediately Invoked Function Expressions     201 Writing a Simple IIFE     203 Writing an IIFE That Takes Arguments     204 When to Use an IIFE     205     Avoiding Code Collisions     206     Closures and Locking in State207 Making Things Private     213 PART III:  WORKING WITH THE DOM Chapter 21  JS, The Browser, and The DOM     219 What HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Do     220 HTML Defines the Structure     220 Prettify My World, CSS!     222 It’s JavaScript Time!     223 Meet the Document Object Model     225     The Window Object     227     The Document Object     228 Chapter 22  Finding Elements in the DOM     231 Meet the querySelector Family     232     querySelector     233     querySelectorAll     233 It Really Is the CSS Selector Syntax     234 Chapter 23  Modifying DOM Elements     237 DOM Elements Are Objects—Sort of!     238 Let’s Actually Modify DOM Elements     240     Changing an Element’s Text Value     242     Attribute Values     242 Chapter 24  Styling Your Content     247 Why Would You Set Styles Using JavaScript?     248     A Tale of Two Styling Approaches     248     Setting the Style Directly     249 Adding and Removing Classes Using classList     250     Adding Class Values     250     Removing Class Values     251     Toggling Class Values     251     Checking Whether a Class Value Exists     252     Going Further     252 Chapter 25  Traversing the DOM     255 Finding Your Way Around     256     Dealing with Siblings and Parents     259     Let’s Have Some Kids!259 Putting It All Together     261     Checking Whether a Child Exists     261     Accessing All the Child Elements     261     Walking the DOM     262 Chapter 26  Creating and Removing DOM Elements     265 Creating Elements     266 Removing Elements     271 Cloning Elements     273 Chapter 27  In-Browser Developer Tools     279 Meet the Developer Tools     280     Inspecting the DOM     282     Debugging JavaScript     287     Meet the Console     293     Inspecting Objects     294     Logging Messages     296 PART IV:  DEALING WITH EVENTS Chapter  28 Events     299 What Are Events?     300 Events and JavaScript     302     1. Listening for Events     302     2. Reacting to Events     304 A Simple Example     305 The Event Arguments and the Event Type     307 Chapter 29  Event Bubbling and Capturing     311 Event Goes Down Event Goes Up     312 Meet the Phases     316 Who Cares?     319 Event, Interrupted     319 Chapter 30  Mouse Events     325 Meet the Mouse Events     326     Clicking Once and Clicking Twice     326     Mousing Over and Mousing Out     328     The Very Click-like Mousing Down and Mousing Up Events     330     The Event Heard Again…and Again…and Again!     331     The Context Menu     332 The MouseEvent Properties     333     The Global Mouse Position     333     The Mouse Position Inside the Browser     334     Detecting Which Button Was Clicked     335 Dealing with the Mouse Wheel     336 Chapter 31 Keyboard Events     339 Meet the Keyboard Events     340 Using These Events     341 The Keyboard Event Properties     342 Some Examples     343     Checking That a Particular Key Was Pressed     343     Doing Something When the Arrow Keys Are Pressed     344     Detecting Multiple Key Presses     345 Chapter 32  Page Load Events and Other Stuff     349 The Things That Happen During Page Load     350     Stage Numero Uno     351     Stage Numero Dos     352     Stage Numero Three     352 The DOMContentLoaded and load Events     353 Scripts and Their Location in the DOM     355 Script Elements—Async and Defer     358     async     358     defer     359 Chapter 33  Handling Events for Multiple Elements     363 How to Do All of This     365     A Terrible Solution     366     A Good Solution     367     Putting It All Together     370 Chapter 34  Conclusion     373 Glossary     377 Index     381