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JavaScript JavaScript Foundations Variables Hoisting

David Peyton
David Peyton
2,195 Points
Posted by David Peyton
David Peyton
2,195 Points

Not sure what I'm doing wrong in this example

I guess it is obvious I don't need to type in the console.log to display words because we can't see the console when previewing.

So i'm not exactly sure about what i do next after setting the var up top

Dave Evans
Dave Evans
13,160 Points

Please post your script so that we can better analyze what you are attempting to use.

1 Answer

Dave McFarland
STAFF
Dave McFarland
Treehouse Teacher
Dave McFarland
Dave McFarland
Treehouse Teacher

In this challenge you're supposed to use best practices for declaring variables inside a function. When setting up a "local variable" -- a variable that is only available to the function -- you should declare the variable with the var keyword at the top of the function. However, you don't need to set its value there -- you should set the value of the variable wherever it makes sense in the function.

Here's an example of improperly declaring a local variable within a function:

function myFunction(val) {
   if (val===true) {
      var newVar = "This is a local variable";
   }
}

See how the newVar variable isn't declared until the conditional statement. Here's a better way to do it:

function myFunction(val) {
   var newVar;
    if (val===true) {
      newVar = "This is a local variable";
   }
}

The variable is declared at the top of the function, but it's value isn't set until inside the conditional statement. It isn't required that you declare local variables in this way, but it makes it a lot easier to identify local variables when your functions become more than just a few lines of code long.