This page lists features of JavaScript that are deprecated (that is, still available but planned for removal) and obsolete (that is, no longer usable).
Deprecated featuresThese deprecated features can still be used, but should be used with caution because they are not required to be implemented by every JavaScript engine. You should work to remove their use from your code.
Some of these deprecated features are listed in the Annex B section of the ECMAScript specification. This section is described as normative optional â that is, web browser hosts must implement these features, while non-web hosts may not. These features are likely stable because removing them will cause backward compatibility issues and break legacy websites. (JavaScript has the design goal of "don't break the web".) Still, they are not cross-platform portable and may not be supported by all analysis tools, so you are advised to not use them, as the introduction of Annex B states:
⦠All of the language features and behaviors specified in this annex have one or more undesirable characteristics and in the absence of legacy usage would be removed from this specification. â¦
⦠Programmers should not use or assume the existence of these features and behaviors when writing new ECMAScript code. â¦
Some others, albeit in the main spec body, are also marked as normative optional and should not be depended on.
JavaScript source, if parsed as scripts, allows HTML-like comments, as if the script is part of a <script>
tag.
The following is valid JavaScript when running in a web browser (or Node.js, which uses the V8 engine powering Chrome):
<!-- comment
console.log("a"); <!-- another comment
console.log("b");
--> More comment
// Logs "a" and "b"
<!--
and -->
both act like //
, i.e., starting line comments. -->
is only valid at the start of a line (to avoid ambiguity with a postfix decrement followed by a greater than operator), while <!--
can occur anywhere in the line.
The following properties are deprecated. This does not affect their use in replacement strings:
$1â$9
Parenthesized substring matches, if any.
input
, $_
The string against which a regular expression is matched.
lastMatch
, $&
The last matched substring.
lastParen
, $+
The last parenthesized substring match, if any.
leftContext
, $`
The substring preceding the most recent match.
rightContext
, $'
The substring following the most recent match.
Warning: Avoid using these static properties, as they can cause issues when interacting with external code!
The compile()
method is deprecated. Construct a new RegExp
instance instead.
The following regex syntaxes are deprecated and only available in Unicode-unaware mode. In Unicode-aware mode, they are all syntax errors:
-
become a literal character.\cX
where X
is a number or _
are decoded in the same way as those with ASCII letters: \c0
is the same as \cP
when taken modulo 32. In addition, if the form \cX
is encountered anywhere where X
is not one of the recognized characters, then the backslash is treated as a literal character.\k
within a regex that doesn't have any named capturing groups is treated as an identity escape.]
, {
, and }
may appear literally without escaping if they cannot be interpreted as the end of a character class or quantifier delimiters.caller
property of functions and the arguments.callee
property are deprecated and unavailable in strict mode.arguments
as a property of a function, you should use the arguments
object inside function closures.String.prototype.fontsize
and String.prototype.big
.String.prototype.substr
probably won't be removed anytime soon, but it's defined in Annex B and hence normative optional.String.prototype.trimLeft
and String.prototype.trimRight
should be replaced with String.prototype.trimStart
and String.prototype.trimEnd
.getYear()
and setYear()
methods are affected by the Year-2000-Problem and have been subsumed by getFullYear
and setFullYear
.toGMTString()
method is deprecated. Use toUTCString()
instead.escape()
and unescape()
functions are deprecated. Use encodeURI()
, encodeURIComponent()
, decodeURI()
, or decodeURIComponent()
to encode and decode escape sequences for special characters.The with
statement is deprecated and unavailable in strict mode.
Initializers in var
declarations of for...in
loops headers are deprecated and produce syntax errors in strict mode. The initializer expression is evaluated and assigned to the variable, but the value would be immediately reassigned on the first iteration of the loop.
Normally, the catch
block of a try...catch
statement cannot contain any variable declaration with the same name as the variables bound in the catch()
. An extension grammar allows the catch
block to contain a var
declared variable with the same name as the catch
-bound identifier, but only if the catch
binding is a simple identifier, not a destructuring pattern. However, this variable's initialization and assignment would only act on the catch
-bound identifier, instead of the upper scope variable, and the behavior could be confusing.
var a = 2;
try {
throw new Error();
} catch (a) {
var a = 1; // This 1 is assigned to the caught `a`, not the outer `a`.
}
console.log(a); // 2
try {
throw new Error();
// Note: identifier changed to `err` to avoid conflict with
// the inner declaration of `a`.
} catch (err) {
var a = 1; // This 1 is assigned to the upper-scope `a`.
}
console.log(a); // 1
This is listed in Annex B of the spec and hence may not be implemented everywhere. Avoid any name conflicts between the catch
-bound identifier and variables declared in the catch
block.
These obsolete features have been entirely removed from JavaScript and can no longer be used as of the indicated version of JavaScript.
RegExpThe following are now properties of RegExp
instances, no longer of the RegExp
constructor:
global
Whether or not to test the regular expression against all possible matches in a string, or only against the first. ignoreCase
Whether or not to ignore case while attempting a match in a string. lastIndex
The index at which to start the next match. multiline
(also via RegExp.$*
) Whether or not to search in strings across multiple lines. source
The text of the pattern.
The valueOf()
method is no longer specialized for RegExp
. It uses Object.prototype.valueOf()
, which returns itself.
arity
property is obsolete. Use length
instead.__count__
Returns the number of enumerable properties directly on a user-defined object. Object.keys()
__parent__
Points to an object's context. No direct replacement __iterator__
Used with legacy iterators. Symbol.iterator
and the new iteration protocols __noSuchMethod__
A method called when a non-existent property is called as method. Proxy
Object.prototype.eval()
Evaluates a string of JavaScript code in the context of the specified object. No direct replacement Object.observe()
Asynchronously observing the changes to an object. Proxy
Object.unobserve()
Remove observers. Proxy
Object.getNotifier()
Create a notifier object that allows to synthetically trigger a change observable with Object.observe()
. No direct replacement Object.prototype.watch()
Attach a handler callback to a property that gets called when the property is assigned. Proxy
Object.prototype.unwatch()
Remove watch handlers on a property. Proxy
String
String.slice(myStr, 0, 12)
, String.replace(myStr, /\./g, "!")
, etc. have been introduced in Firefox 1.5 (JavaScript 1.6), deprecated in Firefox 53, and removed in Firefox 68. You can use methods on String.prototype
together with Function.call
instead.String.prototype.quote
is removed from Firefox 37.flags
parameter in String.prototype.search
, String.prototype.match
, and String.prototype.replace
are obsolete.WeakMap.prototype.clear()
was added in Firefox 20 and removed in Firefox 46. It is not possible to traverse all keys in a WeakMap
.Date.prototype.toLocaleFormat()
, which used a format string in the same format expected by the strftime()
function in C, is obsolete. Use toLocaleString()
or Intl.DateTimeFormat
instead.Array.slice(myArr, 0, 12)
, Array.forEach(myArr, myFn)
, etc. have been introduced in Firefox 1.5 (JavaScript 1.6), deprecated in Firefox 68, and removed in Firefox 71. You can use methods on Array.prototype
together with Function.call
instead.Array.observe()
Asynchronously observing changes to Arrays. Proxy
Array.unobserve()
Remove observers. Proxy
Number
Number.toInteger()
is obsolete. Use Math.floor
, Math.round
, or other methods instead.Proxy.create
and Proxy.createFunction
are obsolete. Use the Proxy()
constructor instead.hasOwn
(bug 980565, Firefox 33).getEnumerablePropertyKeys
(bug 783829, Firefox 37)getOwnPropertyNames
(bug 1007334, Firefox 33)keys
(bug 1007334, Firefox 33)ParallelArray
is obsolete.for each...in
is obsolete. Use for...of
instead.function () 1
as a shorthand of function () { return 1; }
) are obsolete. Use regular functions
or arrow functions instead.The toSource()
methods of arrays, numbers, strings, etc. and the uneval()
global function are obsolete. Use toString()
, or write your own serialization method instead.
Legacy generator function statements and legacy generator function expressions are removed. The legacy generator function syntax reuses the function
keyword, which automatically becomes a generator function when there are one or more yield
expressions in the body â this is now a syntax error. Use function*
statements and function*
expressions instead.
Array comprehensions and generator comprehensions are removed.
// Legacy array comprehensions
[for (x of iterable) x]
[for (x of iterable) if (condition) x]
[for (x of iterable) for (y of iterable) x + y]
// Legacy generator comprehensions
(for (x of iterable) x)
(for (x of iterable) if (condition) x)
(for (x of iterable) for (y of iterable) x + y)
Firefox, prior to version 26, implemented another iterator protocol that is similar to the standard Iterator protocol. An object is an legacy iterator when it implements a next()
method, which produces a value on each call and throws a StopIteration
object at the end of iteration. This legacy iterator protocol differs from the standard iterator protocol:
next()
, instead of the value
property of the IteratorResult
object.StopIteration
object, instead of through the done
property of the IteratorResult
object.This feature, along with the StopIteration
global constructor, was removed in Firefox 58+. For future-facing usages, consider using for...of
loops and the iterator protocol.
Sharp variables are obsolete. To create circular structures, use temporary variables instead.
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