Just like the let keyword const
can be used in many different scenarios. Like I said in the previous post when using const
you want to make sure that you are not using a variable that will be altered later on in your code. Some developers take it a step farther and they declare every variable as a const
unless they know 100% that the variable will be altered then they use the let.
While changing a declared value like a string or number will result in a console error, in certain situations the const
keyword is not the end all be all.
When you declare a const
value as an object or an array it is important to understand that objects (including arrays and functions) assigned to a variable using const
are still mutable. const
only prevents reassignment of the variable identifier.
const CITIES = ["New York", "Philadelphia", "Miami"];
CITIES = ["Milwaukee", "Tulsa", "Austin"];
CITIES[2] = "Los Angeles";
console.log(CITIES);
CITIES = ["Milwaukee", "Tulsa", "Austin"];
will result in an error. Console will display ["New York", "Philadelphia", "Los Angeles"]
In the console you can see the original object has been mutated to add LA on cities[2]
. This shows that the elements in CITIES
are mutable, but because const
has been used you are unable to use the variable identifier CITIES
to point to a different array using the assignment operator.
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