why is global variable not accessible even if local variable is defined later in code

Question

why does the following code segment generate the following output?

code segment:

var a = 10;
function(){
    console.log(a);
    var a = 5;
}

output:

undefined

Answer 1

Because variable is hoisted at top and in your function you have declared the variable var a = 5 which is same as following:

var a = 10;
function(){
    var a; // a = undefined
    console.log(a);//a is not defined so outputs undefined
    a = 5;
    console.log(a);//a is now 5 so outputs 5
}

And in your function scope var is being declared it doesn't see global variable but local variable i.e. var a and which is undefined.