Modern JavaScript Features You Should Know

JavaScript has evolved significantly over the years. Let’s explore some modern features that every developer should know.

Optional Chaining

Optional chaining (?.) allows you to safely access nested properties:

const user = {
  profile: {
    name: 'John'
  }
};

// Old way
const email = user && user.profile && user.profile.email;

// New way
const email = user?.profile?.email;

Nullish Coalescing

The nullish coalescing operator (??) provides a better way to set default values:

const value = null ?? 'default'; // 'default'
const value2 = 0 ?? 'default';   // 0 (not 'default'!)

Array Methods

Modern array methods make data manipulation easier:

const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

// Find
const found = numbers.find(n => n > 3); // 4

// Filter
const filtered = numbers.filter(n => n % 2 === 0); // [2, 4]

// Map
const doubled = numbers.map(n => n * 2); // [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

Destructuring

Destructuring makes extracting values from objects and arrays cleaner:

const person = { name: 'Alice', age: 30, city: 'NYC' };
const { name, age } = person;

const colors = ['red', 'green', 'blue'];
const [first, second] = colors;

Conclusion

These modern JavaScript features help write cleaner, more maintainable code. Start incorporating them into your projects today!