JavaScript - Optional Chaining Operator

What is Optional Chaining Operator (?.)?

It was introduced in ES2022 and is an operator that accesses an object’s property or calls a function. If the object or the function was accessed with this operator, the expression short circuits and evaluates to undefined instead of throwing an error.

obj.val?.prop;
obj.val?.[expr];
obj.func?.(args);

It is a useful feature in JavaScript for handling situations where you need to access nested properties or methods on an object, but there is a possibility of encountering null or undefined values along the chain. Here are some common use cases for this operator:

Accessing nested properties
Calling methods on optional objects
Conditional rendering in UI
API responses and data manipulation
Error Handling

Examples

Access nested properties

const user = {
	id: 1,
	name: "John",
	address: {
		city: "New York",
		zipcode: "10001",
	},
};

const city = user?.address?.city;
const country = user?.address?.country;

console.log(city); // output: New York
console.log(country); // output: undefined

Calling methods on optional objects

const fetchData = () => {
	return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
		setTimeout(() => {
			resolve({
				data: {
					users: [
						{ id: 1, name: "John" },
						{ id: 2, name: "Jane" },
					],
				},
			});
		}, 1000);
	});
};

fetchData()
	.then((response) => {
		response?.data?.users?.forEach((user) => {
			console.log(user.name);
		});
	})
	.catch((error) => console.error(error));

Conditional rendering in UI

There are 2 options for this. First, <p>Country: {user?.address?.country ?? "N/A"}</p> will be rendering N/A if the country property doesn’t exist. Secondly, user?.address?.country && <p>Country: {user?.address?.country}</p>} will not render if the country property doesn’t exist.

import React from "react";

const UserProfile = () => {
	const user = {
		id: 1,
		name: "John",
		address: {
			city: "New York",
			zipcode: "10001",
			// country: "Somewhere",
		},
	};

	return (
		<div>
			<h1>Welcome, {user.name}!</h1>
			<p>City: {user?.address?.city}</p>
			<p>Country: {user?.address?.country ?? "N/A"}</p>
			{user?.address?.country && <p>Country: {user?.address?.country}</p>}
		</div>
	);
};

API responses and data manipulation

const apiResponse = {
	data: {
		user: {
			id: 1,
			name: "John",
			orders: [
				{ id: 1, product: "Phone", quantity: 2 },
				{ id: 2, product: "Laptop", quantity: 1 },
			],
		},
	},
};

const orders = apiResponse?.data?.user?.orders;
if (orders) {
	orders.forEach((order) => {
		console.log(`Order: ${order.id}, Product: ${order.product}`);
	});
}

Error handling

const user = null;

const name = user?.name || "Unknown User";
console.log(name); // output: Unknown User

const city = user?.address?.city ?? "No City Found";
console.log(city); // output: No City Found

Remember, there is a pitfall in using nullish coalescing operator. If the value from the API or somewhere else is evaluated in the Boolean context, nullish coalescing operator would return left-hand operand. If you know in advanced that the value is either null or undefined, the nullish coalescing operator can be used, otherwise, use the logical OR operator instead

Extra

Let’s say you have 2 functions inside of the user object, one of them is existed while another one doesn’t exist. The optional chaining is an operator, but also not an operator. It is a special syntax construct.

For function, you can write it like user.admin?.(), if it exists, it will return a value, otherwise it returns undefined

const user = {
	admin() {
		return "I am an admin";
	},
};

console.log(user.admin?.()); // output: I am an admin

// try copy and paste below to editor and see what the terminal shows you
console.log(user.admin1()); // this raise TypeError
console.log(user.admin1?.()); // this will return undefined

Recap

The optional chaining operator is an awesome feature that simplifies code and reduces the need for ternary operators or if statements. It provides a concise way to handle situations where certain properties may not exist, especially when working with APIs. By using optional chaining, you can navigate through object properties and gracefully handle cases where properties are missing or undefined, making your code more readable and easier to maintain.

Resources

Thank you!

Thank you for your time and for reading this!