Complete guide to primitive and reference types in Javascript

In this article, I will cover primitive and reference data types in Javascript.

ECMAScript variables can contain two types of data:

• Primitive types
• Reference types

Primitive

Primitive values are simple immutable atomic pieces of data.

• undefined
• null
• boolean
• string
• symbol

Above are the six primitive types that are offered by Javascript.

Primitive types are immutable means they can not be changed.

let name = "Pratap";

This is how Pratap is stored in the memory when you assign it to the variable name.

let name = "Pratap";
let name2 = name;

If we assign the variable name to another variable name2, it is stored as a separate value and can be used separately with no side effects.

New space allocated in memory

Reference

Reference values are mutable objects made of multiple values.

• arrays
• functions
• objects

Javascript has three data types that are stored as reference values.

Reference types are mutable, which means they can be changed.

let person = {
  name: "Pratap",
  age: 20,
};

The above object can be changed or is mutable because the new object will be just the reference to the original object.

Example from the previous object

let person2 = person;
person2.name = "Sidhart";

console.log(person2);
// {name: "Sidhart", age: 20}

To sum it up

This is it from this article. I hope I'm able to give you an overview of primitive and reference data types in Javascript.

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Please don't hesitate to drop a comment here if I miss anything. Also, let me know if I can make the post better.