The "Global" Object Type - The Invisible Global Container

This section provides a quick description and a tutorial example script of the 'Global' built-in object type, which is used to create a default invisible global object to hold all global properties and functions.

The "Global" object type is probably the most mysterious built-in object type. It has the following main features:

Here is a tutorial sample script showing you some of those features:

// Global_Object_Type.js
// Copyright (c) 2013 HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.

   // Global() constructor is not accessible 
   // var myGlobal = new Global();

   println("\nAbout this \"this\":");
   println("   Type = "+(typeof this));
   println("   Instance Of Object: "+(this instanceof Object));
   
   // "instanceof Global" is not allowed
   // println("   Instance Of Global: "+(this instanceof Global));
   
   // toString() will us more
   println("   toString() = "+this.toString());

   // Accessing a global property directly
   println("\nChecking NaN:");
   println("   NaN: Type = "+(typeof NaN) 
      + ", Value = "+NaN);
      
   // Accessing a global property indirectly
   println("\nChecking this.NaN:");
   println("   this.NaN: Type = "+(typeof this.NaN) 
      + ", Value = "+this.NaN);

   // Testing a global function
   println("\nTesting eval() in two ways:");
   println("   eval('7*7') = "+eval('7*7')); 
   println("   this.eval('7*7') = "+this.eval('7*7'));

If you run this script with "jrunscript", you will get:

About this "this":
   Type = object
   Instance Of Object: true
   toString() = [object Global]

Checking NaN:
   NaN: Type = number, Value = NaN

Checking this.NaN:
   this.NaN: Type = number, Value = NaN

Testing eval() in two ways:
   eval('7*7') = 49
   this.eval('7*7') = 49

"this.toString()" proves that "this" is a "Global" object.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction to JavaScript

 ECMAScript Language Specification and JavaScript Dialects

 Data Types, Variables and Expressions

 Flow Control Statements

 Creating, Accessing, and Manipulating Arrays

 Defining and Calling Functions

 Web Browser Supporting JavaScript

 Server-Side and Client-Side Web Scripting

 Introduction to Objects

 Defining Your Own Object Types

 Inheritance of Properties and Methods through the Prototype Object Chain

 'jrunscript' - JavaScript Shell Command from JDK

 Using Functions as "Function" Objects

Introduction to Built-in Object Types

 Overview of Built-in Object Types

 The "Object" Object Type - The Root Object Type

The "Global" Object Type - The Invisible Global Container

 Global Properties and Functions Defined in ECMAScript

 Global Properties and Functions Provided by "jrunscript"

 The "Function" Object Type - Functions Are Objects

 The "Array" Object Type - Arrays Are Objects

 The "JSON" Object Type - parse() and stringify()

 The "String" Object Type - Not Equal to String Primitive Type

 The "Boolean" Object Type - Wrapping Boolean Values into Objects

 The "Number" Object Type - Not Equal to Number Primitive Type

 The "Date" Object Type - Managing Dates and Times

 The "RegExp" Object Type - Regular Expression Patterns

 The "Error" Object Type - Runtime Exceptions

 The "Math" Object Type - The Math Container

 W3C's Document Object Model (DOM) Specifications

 AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML)

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB