Text and Strings

Working with words and joining them together

8 min read · runnable Javascript

A piece of text in programming is called a string. You can think of it as a string of characters (letters, spaces, numbers, and symbols) threaded together.

You always wrap a string in quotes. Both double quotes "like this" and single quotes 'like this' work, as long as you match them.

let greeting = "Hello";
let name = 'Alex';

Joining strings together

You can stick strings together using the + sign. This is called concatenation, which is a fancy word for joining end to end.

let first = "Good";
let second = "morning";
console.log(first + " " + second);

Notice the " " in the middle: that is a string containing a single space, so the words do not get squashed together.

Template strings (an easier way)

Joining with lots of + signs gets messy. JavaScript offers a tidier way using backticks ( ` ) and ${ } to drop a variable straight into the text:

let name = "Alex";
console.log(`Hello, ${name}!`);

Tip: The backtick key is usually in the top-left corner of your keyboard, above Tab. Inside backticks, anything written as ${ } gets replaced by the value of that variable.

Try it yourself

Run the code and then change the name to your own.

Try it yourself

let first = "Good";
let second = "morning";

// Joining with +
console.log(first + " " + second);

// The tidier way with backticks
let name = "Alex";
console.log(`Hello, ${name}!`);

Output

Press “Run code” to see the result.

Quick check

Q1 What is a string?

Q2 What does console.log("Cat" + "dog") print?

Want to save your progress? It's free.

Create a free account