Does javascript store variable names?

Asked Feb 09 '23 at 16:50

Active Feb 09 '23 at 16:50

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let num = 10;
console.log(num);

For example, if the value 10 stored at 0x123..

How does javascript recognize that the string "num" is associated with the address 0x123.. which contains the value 10?

I found an explanation about this process in C, basically the compiler discards the name and substitutes it with the address (the name of the variable is not preserved). Is it the same for javascript?

I am confused because javascript is different, it's just-in-time compiled. Every browser vendor probably implements their own version of this but I imagine that they share the same concepts.

Does this mean that it maintains a symbol table at all times to keep track of the relationship between the variable name and its address location?

I skimmed through the ECMA specs and read the MDN documentation and I am still lost.

asked Feb 09 '23 at 16:50

Пламен Трифонов

are you talking about memory address? – Chris G Feb 09 '23 at 17:02
Does this help? https://felixgerschau.com/javascript-memory-management/ – Jay Buckman Feb 09 '23 at 17:02
There's a symbol table at **some** point; how long a symbol might be in it would be implementation (and execution context) dependent. – Dave Newton Feb 09 '23 at 17:10
What are you actually trying to do? https://xyproblem.info/ – asportnoy Feb 09 '23 at 17:54
@asportnoy I think they're trying to understand JS implementations, specifically around reference lookups. – Dave Newton Feb 09 '23 at 18:34
@asportnoy I am trying to gain a better understadning of what happens under the hood. Is the name of a variable stored anywhere in memory? let myName = 'Penguin'; Is the literal string "myName" saved in memory? – Пламен Трифонов Feb 09 '23 at 19:17

Does javascript store variable names?

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