Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours

By Michael Moncur

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • We Want to Hear from You!
  • Reader Services
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Getting Started
  • Hour 1. Understanding JavaScript
  • Hour 2. Creating a Simple Script
  • Hour 3. How JavaScript Programs Work
    • Combining Tasks with Functions
    • Understanding Objects
    • Handling Events
    • Conditional Statements
    • Loops
    • Which Script Runs First?
    • Workshop: Using Comments
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Quiz
    • Exercises
  • Part II: Learning JavaScript Basics
  • Hour 4. Using Functions and Variables
  • Hour 5. Using Strings and Arrays
  • Hour 6. Testing and Comparing Values
  • Hour 7. Repeating Yourself: Using Loops
  • Hour 8. Using Math and Date Functions
  • Part III: The Document Object Model (DOM)
  • Hour 9. Working with the Document Object Model
  • Hour 10. Responding to Events
  • Hour 11. Using Windows and Frames
  • Hour 12. Getting Data with Forms
  • Hour 13. Using Graphics and Animation
  • Part IV: Moving on to Advanced JavaScript Features
  • Hour 14. Creating Cross-Browser Scripts
  • Hour 15. Creating Custom Objects
  • Hour 16. Working with Sounds and Plug-Ins
  • Hour 17. Debugging JavaScript Applications
  • Part V: Working with Dynamic HTML (DHTML)
  • Hour 18. Working with Style Sheets
  • Hour 19. Using Dynamic HTML (DHTML)
  • Hour 20. Using Advanced DOM Features
  • Part VI: Putting It All Together
  • Hour 21. Improving a Web Page with JavaScript
  • Hour 22. Creating a JavaScript Game
  • Hour 23. Creating DHTML Applications
  • Hour 24. JavaScript Tips and Tricks
  • Part VII: Appendices
  • Appendix A. Other JavaScript Resources
  • Appendix B. Tools for JavaScript Developers
  • Appendix C. Glossary
  • Appendix D. JavaScript Quick Reference
  • Appendix E. DOM Quick Reference

Workshop: Using Comments

In Hour 2, you used HTML comments to hide your script from older browsers. JavaScript also includes its own type of comments. While these won't hide JavaScript from anyone or anything, they are useful for their intended purpose—commenting on your script.

Comments allow you to include documentation within your script. This will be useful if someone else tries to understand the script, or even if you try to understand it after a long break. To include comments in a JavaScript program, begin a line with two slashes, as in this example:

//this is a comment.

You can also begin a comment with two slashes in the middle of a line, which is useful for documenting a script. In this case, everything on the line after the slashes is treated as a comment and ignored by the browser. For example:

a = a + 1; // add one to the value of a

JavaScript also supports C-style comments, which begin with /* and end with */. These comments can extend across more than one line, as the following example demonstrates:

/*This script includes a variety
of features, including this comment. */

C-style comments are often used for commenting out sections of code. If you have some lines of JavaScript that you want to temporarily take out of the picture while you debug a script, you can add /* at the beginning of the section and */ at the end.

Share This