03

Operators

Chapter 3 • Beginner

25 min

Operators

Operators allow you to manipulate values and perform calculations in JavaScript.

Basic Operators

Arithmetic Operators

Perform mathematical operations:

javascript.js
let a = 10;
let b = 3;

console.log(a + b); // Addition: 13
console.log(a - b); // Subtraction: 7
console.log(a * b); // Multiplication: 30
console.log(a / b); // Division: 3.333...
console.log(a % b); // Modulus: 1
console.log(a ** b); // Exponentiation: 1000

Assignment Operators

Assign values to variables:

javascript.js
let x = 10;
x += 5;  // x = x + 5 (15)
x -= 3;  // x = x - 3 (12)
x *= 2;  // x = x * 2 (24)
x /= 4;  // x = x / 4 (6)

Increment and Decrement

javascript.js
let i = 1;
let j = ++i; // Pre-increment: j equals 2, i equals 2
let k = i++; // Post-increment: k equals 2, i equals 3

String Operations

Concatenation

Joining strings together:

javascript.js
let firstName = 'John';
let lastName = 'Doe';
let fullName = firstName + ' ' + lastName; // 'John Doe'

Template Literals (ES6)

A more modern way to concatenate strings:

javascript.js
let firstName = 'John';
let lastName = 'Doe';
let fullName = `${firstName} ${lastName}`; // 'John Doe'

Type Coercion

JavaScript will automatically convert types when needed, which can sometimes lead to unexpected results:

javascript.js
let num = 5;
let str = '10';
console.log(num + str); // '510' (string concatenation)
console.log(num + Number(str)); // 15 (numeric addition)

Hands-on Examples

Arithmetic Operators

let a = 15;
let b = 4;

console.log('Addition:', a + b);
console.log('Subtraction:', a - b);
console.log('Multiplication:', a * b);
console.log('Division:', a / b);
console.log('Modulus:', a % b);
console.log('Exponentiation:', a ** b);

Arithmetic operators perform basic mathematical operations. The modulus operator (%) returns the remainder after division.