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Tim Wang
9,068 PointsWhen updating quotes, why declared variable using "const" rather than "var/let"?
When updating quotes, why declared variable using "const" rather than "var/let"? const means the variable declared cannot be modified, doesn't it? (But we want to update the quotes. )
2 Answers
Brandon White
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 35,771 PointsHi Tim,
This is a good question. Hopefully, the following makes at least a little sense...
JavaScript is a high level programming language (as it removes a lot of the abstraction that comes with writing code, handling memory, etc...). Because an object is not a primitive type, when you declare a variable and assign it an object, the variable is assigned a pointer. The pointer is like an address that "points" to where that object is in your memory.
So while const does essentially say "don't change the value of this variable", when you're updating an object in the way Treasure does in the video, she's not changing the value of quotes. The quotes variable will still point to the same place in memory where the object is stored, and that place in memory is where the data is being updated.
It's the same reason that you can declare an array with the const keyword, and still push() items to it.
Roxanne Reyes
9,006 PointsIf you want to update the quotes, then I would use var or let. Using the const variable will throw an error.