Why does it matter that we initially set our answer variables to false?

Question

I was able to get this to work by setting the answers to false, but I was also able to get it to work without setting any correct answer variables.

Is initially setting each correct answer to false good practice for a reason? My initial solution with the variables set to false is commented out for comparison.

Can someone please shed some light on what I could encounter that would be problematic by not creating the correct answer 'ca' false variables?

I appreciate the help.

const a1 = 'CASEY'; const a2 = '32'; const a3 = 'MALE'; const a4 = 'BLACK'; const a5 = 'BASKETBALL';

//let [ca1, ca2, ca3, ca4, ca5] = [0];

let rank = '0';

let q1 = prompt("What's your name?"); let q2 = prompt("What's your age?"); let q3 = prompt("What's your gender?"); let q4 = prompt("What's your favorite color?"); let q5 = prompt("What's your favorite sport?");

if (q1.toUpperCase() === a1) { // ca1 = true; rank++; }

if (q2.toUpperCase() === a2) { // ca2 = true; rank++; }

if (q3.toUpperCase() === a3) { // ca3 = true; rank++; }

if (q4.toUpperCase() === a4) { // ca4 = true; rank++; }

if (q5.toUpperCase() === a5) { // ca5 = true; rank++; }

//if(ca1){rank++}; //if(ca2){rank++}; //if(ca3){rank++}; //if(ca4){rank++}; //if(ca5){rank++};

console.log(rank);

if (rank > 4){ document.querySelector('main').innerHTML = <h2>Congrats! you received gold for getting all ${rank} answers correct!</h2>; } else if (rank >= 3 && rank < 5){ document.querySelector('main').innerHTML = <h2>Nice! You received silver for getting ${rank} answers correct!</h2>; } else if (rank <= 2 && rank > 0){ document.querySelector('main').innerHTML = <h2>Decent. You received bronze for getting ${rank} answers correct.</h2>; } else { document.querySelector('main').innerHTML = <h2>Ouch. You received no crown for getting ${rank} answers correct.</h2>;}

Answer 1 · 2021-02-14T21:20:00Z

February 14, 2021 9:20pm

Hi Casey!

I hope this answers your question adequately:

Have you ever heard of the concepts of truthy and falsy?

Basically, any condition that will NOT evaluate to true is falsy and any condition that will NOT evaluate to false is truthy.

So empty variables will, in effect, be falsy, because they will NOT evaluate to true.

More info:

https://www.sitepoint.com/javascript-truthy-falsy/

I hope that helps.

Stay safe and happy coding!

Answer 2 · 2021-02-16T02:34:03Z

February 16, 2021 2:34am

Hi Casey!

Thanks for the kudos - it's my pleasure. It feels nice to be able to contribute!

It doesn't apply to your current question, but here is something to think about (which can relate to the whole truthy/falsy issue).

Whenever possible, name your variables (especially boolean-value variables) very descriptive and it will really make your code readable.

For example, instead of this:

if (result == True) {
   // code
} else {
    // alt code
}

You could do this:

if (user_answered_everything_correct) {
    // code if user did
} else {
    // code if user didn't
}

If user_answered_everything_correct happens to be true, it will execute, if it's false, null, or an empty string (any falsy value), it will not.

And by naming it user_answered_everything_correct, (user_answered_everything_correct == True) is kinda redundant and ever so slightly harder to read and understand.

Does that make sense?

I hope that helps.

Stay safe and happy coding!

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Casey Beaver

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Why does it matter that we initially set our answer variables to false?

2 Answers

Peter Vann

Peter Vann

Casey Beaver

Casey Beaver

Peter Vann

Peter Vann

Casey Beaver

Casey Beaver