Literal (computer programming)

<h2 id="literals-of-objects">Literals of objects</h2>
<p>In <a href="/facts/ECMAScript/M7nDHsB5">ECMAScript</a> (as well as its implementations <a href="/facts/JavaScript/XhhIIEsl">JavaScript</a> or <a href="/facts/ActionScript/xtDQb0wR">ActionScript</a>), an object with methods can be written using the object literal like this:
</p>
var newobj = {
  var1: true,
  var2: "very interesting",
  method1: function () {
    alert(this.var1)
  },
  method2: function () {
    alert(this.var2)
  }
};
newobj.method1();
newobj.method2();

<p>These object literals are similar to <a href="/facts/Anonymous_class/zvzkSAtE">anonymous classes</a> in other languages like <a href="/facts/Java_(programming_language)/9ScgFyAL">Java</a>.
</p><p>The <a href="/facts/JSON/bs1rUAhd">JSON</a> data interchange format is based on a subset of the JavaScript object literal syntax, with some additional restrictions (among them requiring all keys to be quoted, and disallowing functions and everything else except data literals). Because of this, <i>almost</i> every valid JSON document (except for some subtleties with escaping) is also valid JavaScript code, a fact exploited in the <a href="/facts/JSONP/hyRHuwwP">JSONP</a> technique.
</p>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Character_literal/YqQm8mvm">Character literal</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Function_literal/2vdyE4zL">Function literal</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Here_document/7GJs16sB">Here document</a> – a file literal or stream literal</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Hexadecimal_floating-point_literal/02ohQW22">Hexadecimal floating-point literal</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Integer_literal/quAPWK1u">Integer literal</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/String_literal/Fj41vtVm">String literal</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Donovan, John (1972). Systems programming. McGraw-Hill. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-07-017603-4. OCLC 298763. <a href="978-0-07-017603-4" target="_blank">978-0-07-017603-4</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"Literals". IBM Knowledge Center. 18 June 2009. Retrieved 13 May 2020. <a href="https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSQ2R2_14.2.0/com.ibm.ent.asm.zos.doc/asmr102056.htm" target="_blank">https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSQ2R2_14.2.0/com.ibm.ent.asm.zos.doc/asmr102056.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Literal (computer programming) open-in-new

Literal (computer programming)