JavaScript for Absolute Beginners

Prelim......Page 1
Contents at a Glance......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
About the Author......Page 15
About the Technical Reviewers......Page 16
Acknowledgments......Page 17
Preface......Page 18
What Are Value Types?......Page 27
Commenting Code......Page 28
Gluing Strings Together with the + Operator......Page 29
Creating a Number Literal......Page 30
Creating a Boolean Literal......Page 31
Can I Name a Variable Anything I Want?......Page 32
Some Valid Identifiers Are Already Taken......Page 33
Creating an Object Literal......Page 35
Naming Members with Identifiers......Page 39
Creating an Array Literal......Page 40
Creating a Function Literal......Page 45
Summary......Page 49
String Members......Page 51
Determining the Number of Characters......Page 56
Decoding or Encoding Characters......Page 58
Converting Case......Page 59
Locating a Substring......Page 61
Clipping a Substring......Page 62
Replacing a Substring......Page 63
Splitting a String into an Array of Smaller Strings......Page 65
Explicitly Creating Wrappers......Page 69
Converting a Value to Another Type......Page 70
Converting a Value to a Number......Page 72
Converting a Value to a String......Page 76
Methods for Converting a Number to a String......Page 77
Putting Off Learning RegExp Syntax......Page 79
Summary......Page 82
Introducing Operator Precedence and Associativity......Page 83
Using JavaScript Operators......Page 86
Combining Math and Assignment Operations......Page 87
Incrementing or Decrementing Values......Page 92
Testing for Equality......Page 94
Testing for Inequality......Page 97
Comparing Objects, Arrays, and Functions......Page 98
Determining Whether One Number or String Is Greater Than Another......Page 101
Determining Whether One Number or String Is Less Than Another......Page 103
Greater Than or Equal to, Less Than or Equal to......Page 105
Creating More Complex Comparisons......Page 107
Saying or With ||......Page 109
Saying “and” with &&......Page 110
Chaining || Expressions......Page 111
Chaining && Expressions......Page 113
Chaining || and && Expressions......Page 115
Conditionally Returning One of Two Values......Page 116
Making Two Expressions Count as One......Page 119
Deleting a Member, Element, or Variable......Page 120
Summary......Page 121
Controlling Flow......Page 123
Writing an if Condition......Page 124
Appending an else Clause......Page 126
To Wrap or Not to Wrap......Page 127
Coding Several Paths with the else if Idiom......Page 128
Controlling Flow with Conditional Expressions......Page 132
Taking One of Several Paths with a Switch......Page 133
Writing a while Loop......Page 142
Aborting an Iteration but Not the Loop......Page 144
Replacing Break with Return in a Function......Page 146
Writing a do while loop......Page 148
Writing a for Loop......Page 151
Enumerating Members with a for in Loop......Page 153
Snappier Conditionals......Page 155
Snappier Loops......Page 162
Summary......Page 170
Creating Objects with a Constructor......Page 171
Classical Inheritance......Page 175
Determining Which Type or Types an Object Is an Instance Of......Page 183
Inherited Members Are Shared Not Copied......Page 184
Modifying New and Past Instances of a Type......Page 186
Sharing a Prototype but Forgoing the Chain......Page 189
Adding an Empty Chain Link......Page 192
Stealing a Constructor......Page 195
Prototypal Inheritance......Page 197
Cloning Members......Page 200
Mixins......Page 202
Summary......Page 205
Why Use Functions?......Page 207
Functions Are Values......Page 209
Function Members......Page 210
Conditional Advance Loading......Page 211
Writing Object.defineProperty()......Page 212
Writing Object.create()......Page 214
Using the new Functions......Page 215
Lazy Loading......Page 221
Recursion......Page 224
Overriding toString()......Page 227
Testing for an Array......Page 230
Rewriting cloneMembers()......Page 232
Currying......Page 234
Chaining Methods......Page 239
Closure and Returning Functions......Page 243
Passing a Configuration Object......Page 249
Callback Functions......Page 250
Memoization......Page 252
Global Abatement with Modules......Page 253
Plucking Elements from an Array......Page 256
Adding Elements to an Array......Page 260
Gluing Two Arrays Together......Page 262
Reversing the Elements in an Array......Page 264
Sorting the Elements in an Array......Page 265
Creating a String from an Array......Page 270
Taking a Slice of an Array......Page 271
Converting a Read-only Array-like Object to an Array......Page 273
Inserting or Deleting Elements from an Array......Page 276
Summary......Page 280
DOM Tree......Page 281
Is Every Node the Same?......Page 282
Querying the DOM Tree......Page 283
Descending with childNodes......Page 286
Ascending with parentNode......Page 288
Muddying the Waters with Whitespace......Page 289
Coding Cascade Style......Page 290
Moving Laterally......Page 294
Converting a NodeList to an Array......Page 297
Converting a NodeList to an Array for Internet Explorer......Page 299
Traversing the DOM without childNodes......Page 301
Finding an Element by ID......Page 303
Finding Elements by Their Tag Names......Page 304
Finding Elements by Class......Page 305
Querying Attributes with Methods......Page 308
Querying Attr Nodes......Page 311
Enumerating Attributes for an Element......Page 312
Creating Element or Text Nodes......Page 315
Deleting Content......Page 318
Copying Content......Page 319
Creating Elements with a Helper Function......Page 320
Reordering Nested Lists......Page 323
Where Did the Formatting Text Nodes Go?......Page 328
Summary......Page 331
DOM Interfaces for Working with CSS......Page 333
How Does JavaScript Represent a Rule?......Page 334
Downloading the Sample Files......Page 336
Querying a Style Attribute......Page 339
Scripting Classes......Page 344
Scripting Rules......Page 346
Scripting Imported Style Sheets......Page 352
Adding or Deleting a Rule......Page 353
Adding a Rule to a Style Sheet......Page 355
Deleting a Rule from a Style Sheet......Page 358
Querying Overall Styles from the Cascade......Page 360
Enabling and Disabling Style Sheets......Page 364
Including or Importing Style Sheets......Page 365
Embedding a Style Sheet......Page 370
Summary......Page 371
Working with the Event Object......Page 373
Downloading Project Files......Page 374
Advance Conditional Loading......Page 378
Telling JavaScript to Stop Listening for an Event......Page 379
Preventing Default Actions from Taking Place......Page 380
Preventing an Event from Traversing the DOM Tree......Page 381
Crawling the DOM Tree......Page 383
Finding an Element by Class......Page 384
Testing for getElementsByClassName()......Page 386
Querying the Cascade......Page 388
Preparing the Ground......Page 391
Moving the Sprites......Page 394
Snappier Sprites......Page 397
Writing the Mousedown Event Listener......Page 402
Writing the Mousemove Event Listener......Page 406
Writing the Mouseup Event Listener......Page 407
The doZ() Helper Function......Page 409
Prepping the Drag......Page 410
Swapping Skins by Key......Page 418
Fighting Global Evil......Page 422
Summary......Page 423
Downloading the Project Files......Page 425
Getting the User’s Preference......Page 427
Setting the User’s Skin Preference......Page 429
Setting the User’s Preference......Page 430
Preparing the Scrollers......Page 433
Adding the Press Event Listener......Page 436
Writing the Animation Function......Page 438
Using the Gallery......Page 440
Animating the Gallery......Page 441
Swapping Sprites by ID or Class......Page 446
Writing Dynamic Pages Using Ajax......Page 449
Creating Tree Branches with createElem()......Page 450
Asynchronously Requesting Data......Page 452
Parsing an HTML Response......Page 454
Parsing an XML Response......Page 458
Parsing Simple XML......Page 463
Parsing JSON......Page 467
JSON in a Nutshell......Page 468
Padding JSON......Page 473
Converting function declarations to expressions......Page 477
Summary......Page 486
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