What is a Statement?

Site:	Saylor Academy
Course:	PRDV401: Introduction to JavaScript I
Book:	What is a Statement?

Printed by:	Guest user
Date:	Wednesday, 14 May 2025, 3:03 AM

Description

So far, we've seen some components that make up the vocabulary for a programming language, such as variables, operators, and keywords. JavaScript uses this vocabulary to form "statements" or instructions that run in a web browser. This article describes several of the types and groups of keywords used in JavaScript statements. We'll drive into JavaScript keywords in the next section.

If you have programmed in another language, you will notice that statements in JavaScript use a similar syntax to Java, C++, or Python. Most statements contain one or several lines of code that perform a task. For example, a "declaration-statement" creates a variable, a "conditional-statement" handles a decision, and a "looping-statement" executes code many times. JavaScript statements written on one line do not require a semicolon (";"), but it is best practice to end each line with one.

Statements and declarations
Control flow
Declarations
Functions and classes
Iterations
Others

Statements and declarations

JavaScript applications consist of statements with an appropriate syntax. A single statement may span multiple lines. Multiple statements may occur on a single line if each statement is separated by a semicolon. This isn't a keyword, but a group of keywords.

Source: Mozilla, https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Control flow

Block

A block statement is used to group zero or more statements. The block is delimited by a pair of curly brackets.

break

Terminates the current loop, switch, or label statement and transfers program control to the statement following the terminated statement.

continue

Terminates execution of the statements in the current iteration of the current or labeled loop, and continues execution of the loop with the next iteration.

Empty

An empty statement is used to provide no statement, although the JavaScript syntax would expect one.

if...else

Executes a statement if a specified condition is true. If the condition is false, another statement can be executed.

switch

Evaluates an expression, matching the expression's value to a case clause, and executes statements associated with that case.

throw

Throws a user-defined exception.

try...catch

Marks a block of statements to try, and specifies a response, should an exception be thrown.

Declarations

var

Declares a variable, optionally initializing it to a value.

let

Declares a block scope local variable, optionally initializing it to a value.

const

Declares a read-only named constant.

Functions and classes

function

Declares a function with the specified parameters.

function*

Generator Functions enable writing iterators more easily.

async function

Declares an async function with the specified parameters.

return

Specifies the value to be returned by a function.

class

Declares a class.

Iterations

do...while

Creates a loop that executes a specified statement until the test condition evaluates to false. The condition is evaluated after executing the statement, resulting in the specified statement executing at least once.

for

Creates a loop that consists of three optional expressions, enclosed in parentheses and separated by semicolons, followed by a statement executed in the loop.

for...in

Iterates over the enumerable properties of an object, in arbitrary order. For each distinct property, statements can be executed.

for...of

Iterates over iterable objects (including arrays, array-like objects, iterators and generators), invoking a custom iteration hook with statements to be executed for the value of each distinct property.

for await...of

Iterates over async iterable objects, array-like objects, iterators and generators, invoking a custom iteration hook with statements to be executed for the value of each distinct property.

while

Creates a loop that executes a specified statement as long as the test condition evaluates to true. The condition is evaluated before executing the statement.

Others

debugger

Invokes any available debugging functionality. If no debugging functionality is available, this statement has no effect.

export

Used to export functions to make them available for imports in external modules, and other scripts.

import

Used to import functions exported from an external module, another script.

import.meta

Exposes context-specific metadata to a JavaScript module.

label

Provides a statement with an identifier that you can refer to using a break or continue statement.

with

Extends the scope chain for a statement.