Why is typeof null "object"?

javascript primitive
thetrystero picture thetrystero · Sep 15, 2013 · Viewed 87.7k times · Source

I'm reading 'Professional Javascript for Web Developers' Chapter 4 and it tells me that the five types of primitives are: undefined, null, boolean, number and string.

If null is a primitive, why does typeof(null) return "object"?

Wouldn't that mean that null is passed by reference (I'm assuming here all objects are passed by reference), hence making it NOT a primitive?

Answer

Deepak Ingole picture Deepak Ingole · Sep 15, 2013

From the MDN page about the behaviour of the typeof operator:

null

// This stands since the beginning of JavaScript
typeof null === 'object';

In the first implementation of JavaScript, JavaScript values were represented as a type tag and a value. The type tag for objects was 0. null was represented as the NULL pointer (0x00 in most platforms). Consequently, null had 0 as type tag, hence the "object" typeof return value. (reference)

A fix was proposed for ECMAScript (via an opt-in), but was rejected. It would have resulted in typeof null === 'null'.

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