Reserved Keywords

Introduction#

Certain words - so-called keywords - are treated specially in JavaScript. There’s a plethora of different kinds of keywords, and they have changed in different versions of the language.

Reserved Keywords

JavaScript has a predefined collection of reserved keywords which you cannot use as variables, labels, or function names.

ECMAScript 1

_{A — E}	_{E — R}	_{S — Z}
`break`	`export`	`super`
`case`	`extends`	`switch`
`catch`	`false`	`this`
`class`	`finally`	`throw`
`const`	`for`	`true`
`continue`	`function`	`try`
`debugger`	`if`	`typeof`
`default`	`import`	`var`
`delete`	`in`	`void`
`do`	`new`	`while`
`else`	`null`	`with`
`enum`	`return`

----------

ECMAScript 2

Added 24 additional reserved keywords. (New additions in bold).

_{A — F}	_{F — P}	_{P — Z}
`abstract`	`final`	`public`
`boolean`	`finally`	`return`
`break`	`float`	`short`
`byte`	`for`	`static`
`case`	`function`	`super`
`catch`	`goto`	`switch`
`char`	`if`	`synchronized`
`class`	`implements`	`this`
`const`	`import`	`throw`
`continue`	`in`	`throws`
`debugger`	`instanceof`	`transient`
`default`	`int`	`true`
`delete`	`interface`	`try`
`do`	`long`	`typeof`
`double`	`native`	`var`
`else`	`new`	`void`
`enum`	`null`	`volatile`
`export`	`package`	`while`
`extends`	`private`	`with`
`false`	`protected`

----------

ECMAScript 5 / 5.1

There was no change since ECMAScript 3.

ECMAScript 5 removed int, byte, char, goto, long, final, float, short, double, native, throws, boolean, abstract, volatile, transient, and synchronized; it added let and yield.

_{A — F}	_{F — P}	_{P — Z}
`break`	`finally`	`public`
`case`	`for`	`return`
`catch`	`function`	`static`
`class`	`if`	`super`
`const`	`implements`	`switch`
`continue`	`import`	`this`
`debugger`	`in`	`throw`
`default`	`instanceof`	`true`
`delete`	`interface`	`try`
`do`	`let`	`typeof`
`else`	`new`	`var`
`enum`	`null`	`void`
`export`	`package`	`while`
`extends`	`private`	`with`
`false`	`protected`	`yield`

implements, let, private, public, interface, package, protected, static, and yield are disallowed in strict mode only.

eval and arguments are not reserved words but they act like it in strict mode.

ECMAScript 6 / ECMAScript 2015

_{A — E}	_{E — R}	_{S — Z}
`break`	`export`	`super`
`case`	`extends`	`switch`
`catch`	`finally`	`this`
`class`	`for`	`throw`
`const`	`function`	`try`
`continue`	`if`	`typeof`
`debugger`	`import`	`var`
`default`	`in`	`void`
`delete`	`instanceof`	`while`
`do`	`new`	`with`
`else`	`return`	`yield`

Future reserved keywords

The following are reserved as future keywords by the ECMAScript specification. They have no special functionality at present, but they might at some future time, so they cannot be used as identifiers.


`enum`

The following are only reserved when they are found in strict mode code:


`implements`	`package`	`public`
`interface`	`private`	`static’
`let`	`protected`

Future reserved keywords in older standards

The following are reserved as future keywords by older ECMAScript specifications (ECMAScript 1 till 3).


`abstract`	`float`	`short`
`boolean`	`goto`	`synchronized`
`byte`	`instanceof`	`throws`
`char`	`int`	`transient`
`double`	`long`	`volatile`
`final`	`native`

Additionally, the literals null, true, and false cannot be used as identifiers in ECMAScript.

From the Mozilla Developer Network.

Identifiers & Identifier Names

With regards to reserved words there is a small distinctions between the “Identifiers” used for the likes of variable or function names and the “Identifier Names” allowed as properties of composite data types.

For example the following will result in an illegal syntax error:

var break = true;

Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token break

However the name is deemed valid as a property of an object (as of ECMAScript 5+):

var obj = {
    break: true
};
console.log(obj.break);

To quote from this answer:

From the ECMAScript® 5.1 Language Specification:

Section 7.6

Identifier Names are tokens that are interpreted according to the grammar given in the “Identifiers” section of chapter 5 of the Unicode standard, with some small modifications. An Identifier is an IdentifierName that is not a ReservedWord (see 7.6.1).

Syntax

Identifier ::
  IdentifierName but not ReservedWord

By specification, a ReservedWord is:

Section 7.6.1

A reserved word is an IdentifierName that cannot be used as an Identifier.
ReservedWord :: 
  Keyword
  FutureReservedWord
  NullLiteral
  BooleanLiteral

This includes keywords, future keywords, null, and boolean literals. The full list of keywords are in Sections 7.6.1 and literals are in Section 7.8.

The above (Section 7.6) implies that IdentifierNames can be ReservedWords, and from the specification for object initializers:

Section 11.1.5

Syntax

ObjectLiteral :
  { }
  { PropertyNameAndValueList }
  { PropertyNameAndValueList , }

Where PropertyName is, by specification:

PropertyName :
  IdentifierName
  StringLiteral
  NumericLiteral

As you can see, a PropertyName may be an IdentifierName, thus allowing ReservedWords to be PropertyNames. That conclusively tells us that, by specification, it is allowed to have ReservedWords such as class and var as PropertyNames unquoted just like string literals or numeric literals.

To read more, see Section 7.6 - Identifier Names and Identifiers.

Note: the syntax highlighter in this example has spotted the reserved word and still highlighted it. While the example is valid Javascript developers can get caught out by some compiler / transpiler, linter and minifier tools that argue otherwise.