This page lists features of JavaScript that are deprecated (that is, still available but planned for removal) and obsolete (that is, no longer usable).

Deprecated features

These deprecated features can still be used, but should be used with caution because they are not required to be implemented by every JavaScript engine. You should work to remove their use from your code.

Some of these deprecated features are listed in theAnnex B section of the ECMAScript specification. This section is described as normative optional — that is, web browser hosts must implement these features, while non-web hosts may not. These features are likely stable because removing them will cause backward compatibility issues and break legacy websites. (JavaScript has the design goal of "don't break the web".) Still, they are not cross-platform portable and may not be supported by all analysis tools, so you are advised to not use them, as the introduction of Annex B states:

… All of the language features and behaviors specified in this annex have one or more undesirable characteristics and in the absence of legacy usage would be removed from this specification. …

… Programmers should not use or assume the existence of these features and behaviors when writing new ECMAScript code. …

Some others, albeit in the main spec body, are also marked as normative optional and should not be depended on.

HTML comments

JavaScript source, if parsed as scripts, allows HTML-like comments, as if the script is part of a<script> tag.

The following is valid JavaScript when running in a web browser (or Node.js, which uses the V8 engine powering Chrome):

<!-- commentconsole.log("a"); <!-- another commentconsole.log("b");--> More comment// Logs "a" and "b"

<!-- and--> both act like//, i.e., starting line comments.--> is only valid at the start of a line (to avoid ambiguity with a postfix decrement followed by a greater than operator), while<!-- can occur anywhere in the line.

RegExp

The following properties are deprecated. This does not affect their use inreplacement strings:

$1–$9

Parenthesized substring matches, if any.

input,$_

The string against which a regular expression is matched.

lastMatch,$&

The last matched substring.

lastParen,$+

The last parenthesized substring match, if any.

leftContext,$`

The substring preceding the most recent match.

rightContext,$'

The substring following the most recent match.

Thecompile() method is deprecated. Construct a newRegExp instance instead.

The following regex syntaxes are deprecated and only available inUnicode-unaware mode. In Unicode-aware mode, they are all syntax errors:

• Lookahead assertions can havequantifiers.
• Backreferences that do not refer to an existing capturing group becomelegacy octal escapes.
• Incharacter classes, character ranges where one boundary is a character class makes the- become a literal character.
• An escape sequence that's not recognized becomes an"identity escape".
• Escape sequences withincharacter classes of the form\cX whereX is a number or_ are decoded in the same way as those withASCII letters:\c0 is the same as\cP when taken modulo 32. In addition, if the form\cX is encountered anywhere whereX is not one of the recognized characters, then the backslash is treated as a literal character.
• The sequence\k within a regex that doesn't have anynamed capturing groups is treated as an identity escape.
• The syntax characters],{, and} may appearliterally without escaping if they cannot be interpreted as the end of a character class or quantifier delimiters.

Function

• Thecaller property of functions and thearguments.callee property are deprecated and unavailable in strict mode.
• Instead of accessingarguments as a property of a function, you should use thearguments object inside function closures.

Object

• TheObject.prototype.__proto__ accessors are deprecated. UseObject.getPrototypeOf andObject.setPrototypeOf instead. This does not apply to the__proto__ literal key in object literals.
• TheObject.prototype.__defineGetter__,Object.prototype.__defineSetter__,Object.prototype.__lookupGetter__, andObject.prototype.__lookupSetter__ methods are deprecated. UseObject.getOwnPropertyDescriptor andObject.defineProperty instead.

String

• HTML wrapper methods likeString.prototype.fontsize andString.prototype.big.
• String.prototype.substr probably won't be removed anytime soon, but it's defined in Annex B and hence normative optional.
• String.prototype.trimLeft andString.prototype.trimRight should be replaced withString.prototype.trimStart andString.prototype.trimEnd.

Date

• ThegetYear() andsetYear() methods are affected by the Year-2000-Problem and have been subsumed bygetFullYear andsetFullYear.
• ThetoGMTString() method is deprecated. UsetoUTCString() instead.

Escape sequences

• Octal escape sequences (\ followed by one, two, or three octal digits) are deprecated in string and regular expression literals.
• Theescape() andunescape() functions are deprecated. UseencodeURI(),encodeURIComponent(),decodeURI(), ordecodeURIComponent() to encode and decode escape sequences for special characters.

Statements

Thewith statement is deprecated and unavailable in strict mode.

Initializers invar declarations offor...in loops headers are deprecated and producesyntax errors in strict mode. The initializer expression is evaluated and assigned to the variable, but the value would be immediately reassigned on the first iteration of the loop.

Normally, thecatch block of atry...catch statement cannot contain any variable declaration with the same name as the variables bound in thecatch(). An extension grammar allows thecatch block to contain avar declared variable with the same name as thecatch-bound identifier, but only if thecatch binding is a simple identifier, not adestructuring pattern. However, this variable's initialization and assignment would only act on thecatch-bound identifier, instead of the upper scope variable, and the behavior could be confusing.

var a = 2;try {  throw new Error();} catch (a) {  var a = 1; // This 1 is assigned to the caught `a`, not the outer `a`.}console.log(a); // 2try {  throw new Error();  // Note: identifier changed to `err` to avoid conflict with  // the inner declaration of `a`.} catch (err) {  var a = 1; // This 1 is assigned to the upper-scope `a`.}console.log(a); // 1

This is listed in Annex B of the spec and hence may not be implemented everywhere. Avoid any name conflicts between thecatch-bound identifier and variables declared in thecatch block.

Obsolete features

These obsolete features have been entirely removed from JavaScript and can no longer be used as of the indicated version of JavaScript.

RegExp

The following are now properties ofRegExp instances, no longer of theRegExp constructor:

ThevalueOf() method is no longer specialized forRegExp. It usesObject.prototype.valueOf(), which returns itself.

Function

• Functions'arity property is obsolete. Uselength instead.

Object

String

• Non-standard String generic methods likeString.slice(myStr, 0, 12),String.replace(myStr, /\./g, "!"), etc. have been introduced in Firefox 1.5 (JavaScript 1.6), deprecated in Firefox 53, and removed in Firefox 68. You can use methods onString.prototype together withFunction.call instead.
• String.prototype.quote is removed from Firefox 37.
• Non-standardflags parameter inString.prototype.search,String.prototype.match, andString.prototype.replace are obsolete.

WeakMap

• WeakMap.prototype.clear() was added in Firefox 20 and removed in Firefox 46. It is not possible to traverse all keys in aWeakMap.

Date

• Date.prototype.toLocaleFormat(), which used a format string in the same format expected by thestrftime() function in C, is obsolete. UsetoLocaleString() orIntl.DateTimeFormat instead.

Array

• Non-standard Array generic methods likeArray.slice(myArr, 0, 12),Array.forEach(myArr, myFn), etc. have been introduced in Firefox 1.5 (JavaScript 1.6), deprecated in Firefox 68, and removed in Firefox 71. You can use methods onArray.prototype together withFunction.call instead.

Number

• Number.toInteger() is obsolete. UseMath.floor,Math.round, or other methods instead.

Proxy

• Proxy.create andProxy.createFunction are obsolete. Use theProxy() constructor instead.
• The following traps are obsolete:
  • hasOwn (bug 980565, Firefox 33).
  • getEnumerablePropertyKeys (bug 783829, Firefox 37)
  • getOwnPropertyNames (bug 1007334, Firefox 33)
  • keys (bug 1007334, Firefox 33)

ParallelArray

• ParallelArray is obsolete.

Statements

• for each...in is obsolete. Usefor...of instead.
• let blocks and let expressions are obsolete.
• Expression closures (function () 1 as a shorthand offunction () { return 1; }) are obsolete. Use regularfunctions orarrow functions instead.

Acquiring source text

ThetoSource() methods of arrays, numbers, strings, etc. and theuneval() global function are obsolete. UsetoString(), or write your own serialization method instead.

Legacy generator and iterator

Legacy generator function statements and legacy generator function expressions are removed. The legacy generator function syntax reuses thefunction keyword, which automatically becomes a generator function when there are one or moreyield expressions in the body — this is now a syntax error. Usefunction* statements andfunction* expressions instead.

Array comprehensions and generator comprehensions are removed.

// Legacy array comprehensions[for (x of iterable) x][for (x of iterable) if (condition) x][for (x of iterable) for (y of iterable) x + y]// Legacy generator comprehensions(for (x of iterable) x)(for (x of iterable) if (condition) x)(for (x of iterable) for (y of iterable) x + y)

Firefox, prior to version 26, implemented another iterator protocol that is similar to the standardIterator protocol. An object is a legacy iterator when it implements anext() method, which produces a value on each call and throws aStopIteration object at the end of iteration. This legacy iterator protocol differs from the standard iterator protocol:

• The value was returned directly as the return value of calls tonext(), instead of thevalue property of theIteratorResult object.
• Iteration termination was expressed by throwing aStopIteration object, instead of through thedone property of theIteratorResult object.

This feature, along with theStopIteration global constructor, was removed in Firefox 58+. For future-facing usages, consider usingfor...of loops and theiterator protocol.

Sharp variables

Sharp variables are obsolete. To create circular structures, use temporary variables instead.