As the others have said, you can use var at global scope (outside of all functions and modules) to declare a global variable:
<script>
var yourGlobalVariable;
function foo() {
// ...
}
</script>
(Note that that's only true at global scope. If that code were in a module — <script type="module">...</script> — it wouldn't be at global scope, so that wouldn't create a global.)
Alternatively:
In modern environments, you can assign to a property on the object that globalThis refers to (globalThis was added in ES2020):
<script>
function foo() {
globalThis.yourGlobalVariable = ...;
}
</script>
On browsers, you can do the same thing with the global called window:
<script>
function foo() {
window.yourGlobalVariable = ...;
}
</script>
...because in browsers, all global variables global variables declared with var are properties of the window object. (The new let, const, and class statements [added in ES2015] at global scope create globals that aren't properties of the global object; a new concept in ES2015.)
(There's also the horror of implicit globals, but don't do it on purpose and do your best to avoid doing it by accident, perhaps by using ES5's "use strict".)
All that said: I'd avoid global variables if you possibly can (and you almost certainly can). As I mentioned, they end up being properties of window, and window is already plenty crowded enough what with all elements with an id (and many with just a name) being dumped in it (and regardless that upcoming specification, IE dumps just about anything with a name on there).
Instead, in modern environments, use modules:
<script type="module">
let yourVariable = 42;
// ...
</script>
The top level code in a module is at module scope, not global scope, so that creates a variable that all of the code in that module can see, but that isn't global.
In obsolete environments without module support, wrap your code in a scoping function and use variables local to that scoping function, and make your other functions closures within it:
<script>
(function() { // Begin scoping function
var yourGlobalVariable; // Global to your code, invisible outside the scoping function
function foo() {
// ...
}
})(); // End scoping function
</script>
Answer from T.J. Crowder on Stack OverflowAs the others have said, you can use var at global scope (outside of all functions and modules) to declare a global variable:
<script>
var yourGlobalVariable;
function foo() {
// ...
}
</script>
(Note that that's only true at global scope. If that code were in a module — <script type="module">...</script> — it wouldn't be at global scope, so that wouldn't create a global.)
Alternatively:
In modern environments, you can assign to a property on the object that globalThis refers to (globalThis was added in ES2020):
<script>
function foo() {
globalThis.yourGlobalVariable = ...;
}
</script>
On browsers, you can do the same thing with the global called window:
<script>
function foo() {
window.yourGlobalVariable = ...;
}
</script>
...because in browsers, all global variables global variables declared with var are properties of the window object. (The new let, const, and class statements [added in ES2015] at global scope create globals that aren't properties of the global object; a new concept in ES2015.)
(There's also the horror of implicit globals, but don't do it on purpose and do your best to avoid doing it by accident, perhaps by using ES5's "use strict".)
All that said: I'd avoid global variables if you possibly can (and you almost certainly can). As I mentioned, they end up being properties of window, and window is already plenty crowded enough what with all elements with an id (and many with just a name) being dumped in it (and regardless that upcoming specification, IE dumps just about anything with a name on there).
Instead, in modern environments, use modules:
<script type="module">
let yourVariable = 42;
// ...
</script>
The top level code in a module is at module scope, not global scope, so that creates a variable that all of the code in that module can see, but that isn't global.
In obsolete environments without module support, wrap your code in a scoping function and use variables local to that scoping function, and make your other functions closures within it:
<script>
(function() { // Begin scoping function
var yourGlobalVariable; // Global to your code, invisible outside the scoping function
function foo() {
// ...
}
})(); // End scoping function
</script>
Just declare
var trialImage;
outside. Then
function makeObj(address) {
trialImage = [address, 50, 50];
...
...
}
javascript - How to declare a global variable in a .js file - Stack Overflow
Global Variable in Javascript
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Just define your variables in global.js outside a function scope:
// global.js
var global1 = "I'm a global!";
var global2 = "So am I!";
// other js-file
function testGlobal () {
alert(global1);
}
To make sure that this works you have to include/link to global.js before you try to access any variables defined in that file:
<html>
<head>
<!-- Include global.js first -->
<script src="/YOUR_PATH/global.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<!-- Now we can reference variables, objects, functions etc.
defined in global.js -->
<script src="/YOUR_PATH/otherJsFile.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</head>
[...]
</html>
You could, of course, link in the script tags just before the closing <body>-tag if you do not want the load of js-files to interrupt the initial page load.
The recommended approach is:
window.greeting = "Hello World!"
You can then access it within any function:
function foo() {
alert(greeting); // Hello World!
alert(window["greeting"]); // Hello World!
alert(window.greeting); // Hello World! (recommended)
}
This approach is preferred for two reasons.
The intent is explicit. The use of the
varkeyword can easily lead to declaring globalvarsthat were intended to be local or vice versa. This sort of variable scoping is a point of confusion for a lot of Javascript developers. So as a general rule, I make sure all variable declarations are preceded with the keywordvaror the prefixwindow.You standardize this syntax for reading the variables this way as well which means that a locally scoped
vardoesn't clobber the globalvaror vice versa. For example what happens here is ambiguous:
greeting = "Aloha";
function foo() {
greeting = "Hello"; // overrides global!
}
function bar(greeting) {
alert(greeting);
}
foo();
bar("Howdy"); // does it alert "Hello" or "Howdy" ?
However, this is much cleaner and less error prone (you don't really need to remember all the variable scoping rules):
function foo() {
window.greeting = "Hello";
}
function bar(greeting) {
alert(greeting);
}
foo();
bar("Howdy"); // alerts "Howdy"
I have a question concerning using a global variable in javascript, I defined a variable in an index.html file which is a variable taken from a local storage, and I want to use this variable in a Js file, can i do it or not?