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Mía Salazar
Mía Salazar

Posted on • Edited on

Program in Javascript like a Pro

Versión en español

The other day I was thinking about how I could learn to code better, and write it in a way that is more reusable and clean. I was watching many videos and reading various articles and in the end I thought, what if I put together everything I have been learning in one article?... And here we are:

  • Avoid global variables: Global variables are a bad idea. There's a good chance you'll end up overwriting them by accident; It is more difficult for Javascript to find them compared to the local ones, in addition to other reasons that you can see in this thread.
  • Comment: The code should be self-explanatory... But adding some comments doesn't hurt anyone. A comment
  • Avoid accessing the DOM: It is very expensive, so avoid it as much as possible.
  • Don't trust: Validators are good friends and avoid errors when for some reason something fails.
  • Libraries are our friends: Used well, they help us develop faster and with less code.
  • Language and framework difference: Libraries and frameworks are very useful, but it is necessary to be able to distinguish one from the others and know what can be done with each one.
  • Use tools that unify your code style like eslint.

eslint warning example

  • Modularize: Create functions that do one thing.
  • Avoid nesting too much: Generating complex code makes it very difficult to maintain and understand it.
  • Take care of your loops: Try to make the fewer and more optimized loops, the better. Instead of a for or while you can use find, reducer, map or filter when convenient. They are better.
  • Stay up to date: The new Javascript specifications have functionalities like spread operator or the rest operator that make programming easier.
  • Use let and const: Both are more optimal and avoid overwriting and scope errors.
  • Test: Helps on many levels.
  • Be curious: Many times we don't wonder how something works until it stops working. It's good to research the code and understand it even when it does work.

SpongeBob meme with "it works on my machine"

  • There is a world beyond the console.log: Without a doubt, the console.log is everyone's favorite, however, there are many others that we can use and that will be more useful.
  • Name your variables well: Your future self will thank you when they have to understand what you did. And so do your colleagues.
  • Be consistent in the naming: If you decide camelCase, kebab-case, or any other... continue with it. Standardizing names helps you find things better and makes your code cleaner.
  • Avoid duplication: If you have duplicate code, you are doing something wrong.

Three spidermans pointing each other

  • Use strict mode: Javascript is a language that allows you many things without complaining. This is useful for getting something to work, but it can lead to strange behavior. _use strict
  • Specify default values: This will save you from many careless errors, and will allow you to indicate that a property or parameter is optional.
  • Use template literals: They are much more comfortable when handling strings with variables.

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