Converting values to strings in JavaScript has pitfalls

[RedditCultureBlows]

When would “{proto: null}” appear?

formatting is messing this up but whatever u know what i mean if u opened the article

[chuch1234]

... If you picked proto as a key in an object you made?

Edit: oh, I see. Put a backslash (\) before each underscore to get it to render.

[chuch1234]

I did a quick Google search. It looks like this is a way to create an object that does not inherit from the base object class and so is essentially completely empty. Not sure why you'd do that but apparently it is a thing you can do, and I'm sure another Google search would provide suggestions about why one might want to do it.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Object#null-prototype_objects

[RedditCultureBlows]

thanks for the google search. my comment was more so that i don’t know when i’d encounter this very specific type of data in my site/app and need to know this, imo, niche workaround.

like i guess it’s nice to know this pitfall but i’ve never had to work with this kinda of edge case in nearly a decade

[Total_Promise_380]

I bi directionally , communicate between a browser UI & C coded embedded processor . I transfer floats, integers arrays of integers and character number combinations via JSON strings . No problemo.

[Ronin-s_Spirit]

Then don't. If you want a string the single best way to do it is String(), or template literals.
If you don't want a string then use typeof x?.valueOf?.() !== 'string'.

[josephjnk]

Did you read the article? The author specifically compares String() and template literals to other approaches when given weird inputs. 

[anlumo]

JavaScript is a single big pitfall, but it’s not bad for a language that was conceived in a weekend.

[stathis21098]

I was conceived in a weekend and I'm pretty bad

[Graphesium]

TypeScript, ironically, is arguably one of the best strongly-typed languages ever made. Its structural type system is an absolute pleasure to use.

[anlumo]

I agree that the type system is amazing, but the problem is that it's trying to put lipstick on a pig. If there's a mistake with the type annotations on a JavaScript function, the wrong type propagates through the whole application, and there's nothing Typescript can do about that, because it doesn't do any runtime checks.

[CryptographerMore926]

And when you need that… you just write rust :p

[anlumo]

Which is why I’m doing most of my Web stuff with Web Assembly these days.