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Optional Chaining

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Hey!

I am Dustin Savery

Senior Developer at GoDaddy

You can find me at @dustinsavery

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And it’s not just me, this proposal has had nearly

2500

unique views in the last 2 weeks alone!

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You ever wonder why we’re here?

Very brief refresher of Optional Chaining

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Simply put, Optional Chaining is syntactic sugar for finding a value in a tree-like structure

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“

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But… why?

  • Simplify code writing
  • Help with code clarity and readability
  • Deliver predictable results

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What is optional chaining?

const a = { b: { c: 42 }};

​

// With Optional Chaining

a?.b?.c

​

// Without Optional Chaining

a == null ? undefined : a.b == null ? undefined : a.b.c

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What Optional Chaining is NOT

  • Error Prevention
  • Logic Alteration/Augmentation

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What does this proposal support?

  • Property Access

const a = { b: 42 };

​

// Static Property Access

const x = a?.b;

// Dynamic Property Access

const y = a?.[‘b’];

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What does this proposal NOT support?

  • Optional Function Execution
  • Optional Deletion
  • Optional Construction
  • Optional Template Literal
  • Optional Property Assignment

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It hasn’t been without controversy

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So where do we go from here?

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