Why is typeof null “object”?

284
votes

I'm reading 'Professional Javascript for Web Developers' Chapter 4 and it tells me that the five types of primitives are: undefined, null, boolean, number and string.

If null is a primitive, why does typeof(null) return "object"?

Wouldn't that mean that null is passed by reference (I'm assuming here all objects are passed by reference), hence making it NOT a primitive?

8
javascriptprimitive
Answer: Because the spec says so. This is generally regarded as a mistake. – SLaks
Note, typeof is an operator, not a function (and in fact you can omit the parentheses around what comes after it), so it does not makes sense to talk about passing by reference here. The book "JavaScript: The Good Parts" actually mentions the fact that typeof null === 'object' in section A.6 of appendix A entitled 'Awful Parts'. – John Sonderson
I think I would like to read 'Awful Parts' hah – austinheiman
huge mistake, unfathomable! :) – Alexander Mills
So what should we be using instead of typeof to check for the type of value a variable is holding? I'd love to know what it is between (boolean, string, number, array, object, function, symbol, null, undefined, NaN) – Costa Michailidis

8 Answers

243
votes

From the MDN page about the behaviour of the typeof operator:

null

// This stands since the beginning of JavaScript
typeof null === 'object';

In the first implementation of JavaScript, JavaScript values were represented as a type tag and a value. The type tag for objects was 0. null was represented as the NULL pointer (0x00 in most platforms). Consequently, null had 0 as type tag, hence the "object" typeof return value. (reference)

A fix was proposed for ECMAScript (via an opt-in), but was rejected. It would have resulted in typeof null === 'null'.

71
votes

If null is a primitive, why does typeof(null) return "object"?

Because the spec says so.

11.4.3 The typeof Operator

The production UnaryExpression : typeof UnaryExpression is evaluated as follows:

  1. Let val be the result of evaluating UnaryExpression.
  2. If Type(val) is Reference, then
       a. If IsUnresolvableReference(val) is true, return "undefined".
       b. Let val be GetValue(val).
  3. Return a String determined by Type(val) according to Table 20.

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31
votes

As has been pointed out, the spec says so. But since the implementation of JavaScript predates the writing of the ECMAScript spec, and the specification was careful not to correct foibles of the initial implementation, there's still a legitimate question about why it was done this way in the first place. Douglas Crockford calls it a mistake. Kiro Risk thinks it kinda sorta makes sense:

The reasoning behind this is that null, in contrast with undefined, was (and still is) often used where objects appear. In other words, null is often used to signify an empty reference to an object. When Brendan Eich created JavaScript, he followed the same paradigm, and it made sense (arguably) to return "object". In fact, the ECMAScript specification defines null as the primitive value that represents the intentional absence of any object value (ECMA-262, 11.4.11).

9
votes

From the book YDKJS

This is a long-standing bug in JS, but one that is likely never going to be fixed. Too much code on the Web relies on the bug and thus fixing it would cause a lot more bugs!

5
votes

If null is a primitive, why does typeof(null) return "object"?

in short: it is bug in ECMAScript, and the type should be null

reference: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/null

2
votes

In JavaScript null is "nothing". It is supposed to be something that doesn't exist. Unfortunately, in JavaScript, the data type of null is an object. You can consider it a bug in JavaScript that typeof null is an object. It should be null.

0
votes

In JavaScript, typeof null is 'object', which incorrectly suggests that null is an object. This is a bug and one that unfortunately can't be fixed, because it would break existing code.

0
votes

For people who interested in some code that made this behaviour this is the link for you guys....

why typeof null is object with the implementation