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9 Key Skills You Need to Know in JavaScript

9 Key Skills You Need to Know in JavaScript

JavaScript is one of the most important web development languages used today. It lets you add a wide range of functional features to your websites, from the most basic to the most advanced. So, whether you’re an expert developer or just a beginner starting off, there are certain key JavaScript techniques you need to know to become successful. Here are four:

Table of Contents

Asynchronous Programming
Functional Programming
Writing Cross-Browser Code
Efficient Memory Management
Keep Up With The Industry
Communication Skills
Closure
JavaScript Instantiation Patterns
Time Complexity

Asynchronous Programming:

Asynchronous Programming should not be ignored if you are a modern JavaScript developer. JavaScript is a single-threaded language, but it has mechanisms for handling asynchronous tasks. Mechanisms such as callbacks, Promises, and async/await are great for handling asynchronous processes. As a JavaScript programmer in 2023, it’s important to understand how these mechanisms work and when to use them. Async programming can help you with many other skills as well, including code reusability, event-driven architecture, and performance improvements.

Most developers write JavaScript code synchronously, which means that when executing a block of code, only one line of code gets executed at a time (in the order the code appears). This has a detrimental effect on performance, as you need to wait for each operation to be completed before moving on to the next one. Asynchronous programming can help circumvent this restriction by employing techniques to manage concurrency, as it does not wait for each operation to be completed. Instead, it simply executes all operations at once. Learning how to write asynchronous JavaScript code is a key skill that any developer should master, due to the various advantages it offers, such as avoiding browser freezes and improving the speed and performance of a website or application.

Functional Programming:

Knowing how to program declaratively using pure functions is another key skill one should have, as it can completely change the way you code, for the better. With functional programming, you get to write the code purely through functions and avoid shared states, mutation of data, and side effects. Due to the declarative nature of functional programming, the resultant code is more concise, predictable, and easier to test and alter. Also, because it is concise, the code can be executed faster, thereby improving the load times. Learning functional programming can be tough and time-consuming, but the advantages that come with it make it worth the time spent.

Writing Cross-Browser Code:

Making your website code work across multiple browsers is difficult. There are so many different versions of each browser with different capabilities and different bugs that affect your code in different ways. On top of that, there are hundreds of versions of each version of a browser so it can be difficult to keep track of all of the different variations out there. Because of this, a lot of developers find it helpful to write JavaScript code that is cross-browser compatible. It can also help you stick more closely to standards and eliminate any potential issues with old browsers that might not be able to display all of your content properly.

Internet users, in general, do not stick to using just one single web browser; some may prefer to use Internet Explorer, while others may be more comfortable using Google Chrome. In such a situation, you cannot afford to write code that runs on a single web browser, as that would severely limit your website audience and hinder the growth potential of your website. In order to ensure that your website is usable across popular browsers, mobile devices, and any other web browsing devices, it is essential to write JavaScript code that is compatible with multiple web browsers.

Efficient Memory Management:

The ability to write memory-efficient JavaScript code is a skill that is developed over time, but one that you should know nonetheless. Any web application or website can leak memory, making it slow down if the code is not geared toward memory optimization. Memory leaks can sometimes even result in massive performance issues as they end up consuming a ton of valuable system resources. Even though JavaScript has its own automatic memory management system, writing and optimizing your code to utilize better memory and system resources lets you extract some extra performance from the code.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive and these are just four of many such skills that help you grow as a developer. Learning these techniques and knowing when to use them is of paramount importance. When used right, they’re sure to give the users of your website or app the best possible experience. You can also get a deeper knowledge of SQL tricks or check new things you can code with React Native.

Keep Up With The Industry

There is no doubt that the world of JavaScript keeps changing. And, keeping up with all the changes is a skill in itself. So, if you are someone who wants to excel in JavaScript, then you need to keep up with the new changes and trends. No matter how long you’ve been programming with JavaScript, there is always something new to learn. JavaScript is constantly evolving and improving, and there will always be something new coming your way. Staying up to date with all the changes in JavaScript will help you to develop your skills and create great websites for your users. This is also true for other development professionals where you need to keep learning new things. To stay up to date with the latest information, you can subscribe to newsletters or set up alerts using emails and phones.

The key here is to always learn and provide value to your clients by offering their solutions better than their competitors.

Communication Skills

It goes with saying, communication skills are at the core of JavaScript developers. It provides you with the basic foundation for the success of your project as it lets you communicate better with your clients. Your clients may even give you suggestions and inputs about the proposed project and help you develop a website that is not only unique but also useful to them.

This way you can better know your client’s requirements and work better on the project. As you probably know, the success of any project depends largely on the level of communication between you and your team and the clients and vice-versa. Better communication skills also help you to explain things to your client. For instance, you can help them understand the solution in a better way — which can make life easier for both you and your client. You also benefit from better collaboration with your fellow developers. Finally, you can use your communication skills to write better documentation.

Closure

As a JavaScript developer, you need to have a complete understanding of Closure. After all, it lets you play with the scope of your variables. This means you can create functional objects that provide access to it even if you do another function call which transfers the program control to it and returns to the original function.

Closures are created when a function is defined within the scope of another function and can be used to create private variables and functions or to preserve the state between function calls. You might want to learn about JavaScript closures for a number of reasons:

The danger of conflicts with other variables or functions in the global scope can be decreased by using closures to create private variables and functions.
When building functions that remember their prior input or output, closures can be utilized to maintain state between function calls.
Closures can be used to build enclosed chunks of code that can be reused in many contexts and handed around.
JavaScript’s closures notion is strong and popular, and it’s frequently utilized in more complex programming paradigms like functional and asynchronous programming.

JavaScript Instantiation Patterns

Another thing that you can benefit from is learning the skill to know which instantiation pattern you need to use. JavaScript is flexible when it comes to using methods. Each method type has its own benefits and usage — which makes it more important to know which one you should use and when. The instantiation patterns that you can use include functionally shared, prototypal, functional, and functional.

Time Complexity

Time complexity is an important part of the programming process when it comes to developing an application or website. It defines how much time and effort it takes to execute a specific set of instructions. In other words, higher time complexity means more computations are required before the completion of a task compared to lower time complexity.

If you want to make your applications as fast as possible, you should learn how to write algorithms with better time complexity. So, the next time you write an algorithm to solve a problem, you can measure the time complexity to improve it based on the requirements.