Reference Data Type compares with Primitive Data Type in JavaScript

Question

I am a little bit confused about this topic for example

var person = "Kobe";
var another = person;

is variable another create an another copy or just reference to person? That being said, if I change person to something else, will another also be changed??

Compare to

var person = {name: "Kobe"};
var another = person;

Thanks for the help

possible duplicate of Is JavaScript a pass-by-reference or pass-by-value language? — tkone
– tkone, Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 19:57

lexasss · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-15 19:57:33Z

1

Strings (also numbers and booleans) are copied on assignment in JS, object and function share references

answered Jan 15, 2014 at 19:57

lexasss

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2 Comments

Givi Over a year ago

Maybe i'm wrong, but as i remember strings behave a little differently person and another variable refer to same location in heap, before until they hold same value, but if you change value one of them new location in the heap is created.

lexasss Over a year ago

I'm not quite sure about the internal JS engine process, but what is important from the practical point of view is that strings get copied on assignment, no matter what happens in memory. So, if person = "Mike", then another remains Kobe, and visaversa;

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