JavaScript Absolute Beginner's Guide

No experience necessary!




Make the most of JavaScript -- even if you've never programmed anything before. This book is the fastest way to learn JavaScript and use it together with CSS3 and HTML5 to create powerful web and mobile experiences. Learn how to do what you want, the way you want, one incredibly easy step at a time. JavaScript has never been this simple!




This is the easiest, most practical beginner's guide to programming JavaScript with simple, reliable instructions for doing everything you really want to do! Here's a small sample of what you'll learn:





Learn why JavaScript is awesome
Organize your code with variables
Understand how functions make your code reusable
Use the popular if/else statement to help make a decision in code
Learn about switch statements and when to use them
Work with for, while, and do...while loops
Learn how to use global and local scope
Understand what closures are
Learn about the various places your code can live
Understand how to write comments and good commenting practices
Learn about the basic types of objects you'll run into in JavaScript
Find out that pizza has an educational value beyond just being deliciously awesome
Understand how text is treated in JavaScript
Learn how to perform common string operations
Use arrays to handle lists of data
Learn to create custom objects

Purchase of JavaScript Absolute Beginner's Guide in any format includes free access to the online Web Edition, which provides several special features to help you learn:

The complete text of the book online
Short videos by the author introducing each chapter
Interactive quizzes to test your understanding of the material
Updates and corrections as they become available

This Web Edition can be viewed on all types of computers and mobile devices with any modern web browser that supports HTML5.
Contents at a Glance


1 Hello, World!
Part I: The Basic Stuff 2 Values and Variables 3 Functions 4 Conditional Statements: If, Else, and Switch 5 Meet the Loops: For, While, and Do...While! 6 Timers 7 Variable Scope 8 Closures 9 Where Should Your Code Live? 10 Commenting Your Code
Part II: It's an Object-Oriented World 11 Of Pizza, Types, Primitives, and Objects 12 Strings 13 When Primitives Behave Like Objects 14 Arrays 15 Numbers 16 A Deeper Look at Objects 17 Extending Built-in Objects 18 Booleans and the Stricter === and !== Operators 19 Null and Undefined 20 Immediately Invoked Function Expressions
Part III: Working with the DOM 21 JS, The Browser, and The DOM 22 Finding Elements in the DOM 23 Modifying DOM Elements 24 Styling Your Content 25 Traversing the DOM 26 Creating a