typeof
Baseline Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.
Thetypeof operator returns a string indicating the type of the operand's value.
Try it
console.log(typeof 42);// Expected output: "number"console.log(typeof "blubber");// Expected output: "string"console.log(typeof true);// Expected output: "boolean"console.log(typeof undeclaredVariable);// Expected output: "undefined"Syntax
typeof operandParameters
Description
The following table summarizes the possible return values oftypeof. For more information about types and primitives, see also theJavaScript data structure page.
| Type | Result |
|---|---|
| Undefined | "undefined" |
| Null | "object" (reason) |
| Boolean | "boolean" |
| Number | "number" |
| BigInt | "bigint" |
| String | "string" |
| Symbol | "symbol" |
| Function (implements [[Call]] in ECMA-262 terms;classes are functions as well) | "function" |
| Any other object | "object" |
This list of values is exhaustive. No spec-compliant engines are reported to produce (or had historically produced) values other than those listed.
Examples
Basic usage
// Numberstypeof 37 === "number";typeof 3.14 === "number";typeof 42 === "number";typeof Math.LN2 === "number";typeof Infinity === "number";typeof NaN === "number"; // Despite being "Not-A-Number"typeof Number("1") === "number"; // Number tries to parse things into numberstypeof Number("shoe") === "number"; // including values that cannot be type coerced to a numbertypeof 42n === "bigint";// Stringstypeof "" === "string";typeof "bla" === "string";typeof `template literal` === "string";typeof "1" === "string"; // note that a number within a string is still typeof stringtypeof typeof 1 === "string"; // typeof always returns a stringtypeof String(1) === "string"; // String converts anything into a string, safer than toString// Booleanstypeof true === "boolean";typeof false === "boolean";typeof Boolean(1) === "boolean"; // Boolean() will convert values based on if they're truthy or falsytypeof !!1 === "boolean"; // two calls of the ! (logical NOT) operator are equivalent to Boolean()// Symbolstypeof Symbol() === "symbol";typeof Symbol("foo") === "symbol";typeof Symbol.iterator === "symbol";// Undefinedtypeof undefined === "undefined";typeof declaredButUndefinedVariable === "undefined";typeof undeclaredVariable === "undefined";// Objectstypeof { a: 1 } === "object";// use Array.isArray or Object.prototype.toString.call// to differentiate regular objects from arraystypeof [1, 2, 4] === "object";typeof new Date() === "object";typeof /regex/ === "object";// The following are confusing, dangerous, and wasteful. Avoid them.typeof new Boolean(true) === "object";typeof new Number(1) === "object";typeof new String("abc") === "object";// Functionstypeof function () {} === "function";typeof class C {} === "function";typeof Math.sin === "function";typeof null
// This stands since the beginning of JavaScripttypeof null === "object";In the first implementation of JavaScript, JavaScript values were represented as a type tag and a value. The type tag for objects was0.null was represented as the NULL pointer (0x00 in most platforms). Consequently,null had0 as type tag, hence thetypeof return value"object". (reference)
A fix was proposed for ECMAScript (via an opt-in), butwas rejected. It would have resulted intypeof null === "null".
Using new operator
All constructor functions called withnew will return non-primitives ("object" or"function"). Most return objects, with the notable exception beingFunction, which returns a function.
const str = new String("String");const num = new Number(100);typeof str; // "object"typeof num; // "object"const func = new Function();typeof func; // "function"Need for parentheses in syntax
Thetypeof operator has higherprecedence than binary operators like addition (+). Therefore, parentheses are needed to evaluate the type of an addition result.
// Parentheses can be used for determining the data type of expressions.const someData = 99;typeof someData + " foo"; // "number foo"typeof (someData + " foo"); // "string"Interaction with undeclared and uninitialized variables
typeof is generally always guaranteed to return a string for any operand it is supplied with. Even with undeclared identifiers,typeof will return"undefined" instead of throwing an error.
typeof undeclaredVariable; // "undefined"However, usingtypeof on lexical declarations (letconst, andclass) in the same block before the place of declaration will throw aReferenceError. Block scoped variables are in atemporal dead zone from the start of the block until the initialization is processed, during which it will throw an error if accessed.
typeof newLetVariable; // ReferenceErrortypeof newConstVariable; // ReferenceErrortypeof newClass; // ReferenceErrorlet newLetVariable;const newConstVariable = "hello";class newClass {}Exceptional behavior of document.all
All current browsers expose a non-standard host objectdocument.all with typeundefined.
typeof document.all === "undefined";Althoughdocument.all is alsofalsy andloosely equal toundefined, it is notundefined. The case ofdocument.all having type"undefined" is classified in the web standards as a "willful violation" of the original ECMAScript standard for web compatibility.
Custom method that gets a more specific type
typeof is very useful, but it's not as versatile as might be required. For example,typeof [] is"object", as well astypeof new Date(),typeof /abc/, etc.
For greater specificity in checking types, here we present a customtype(value) function, which mostly mimics the behavior oftypeof, but for non-primitives (i.e., objects and functions), it returns a more granular type name where possible.
function type(value) { if (value === null) { return "null"; } const baseType = typeof value; // Primitive types if (!["object", "function"].includes(baseType)) { return baseType; } // Symbol.toStringTag often specifies the "display name" of the // object's class. It's used in Object.prototype.toString(). const tag = value[Symbol.toStringTag]; if (typeof tag === "string") { return tag; } // If it's a function whose source code starts with the "class" keyword if ( baseType === "function" && Function.prototype.toString.call(value).startsWith("class") ) { return "class"; } // The name of the constructor; for example `Array`, `GeneratorFunction`, // `Number`, `String`, `Boolean` or `MyCustomClass` const className = value.constructor.name; if (typeof className === "string" && className !== "") { return className; } // At this point there's no robust way to get the type of value, // so we use the base implementation. return baseType;}For checking potentially non-existent variables that would otherwise throw aReferenceError, usetypeof nonExistentVar === "undefined" because this behavior cannot be mimicked with custom code.
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| ECMAScript® 2026 Language Specification # sec-typeof-operator |
Browser compatibility
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