Question

In JavaScript, is there any benefit in assigning a temporary value to a newly declared variable? For example…

var a = 0,
    b = '';

// Somewhere else
a = 5;
b = 'Goodbye';

vs

var a, b;

// Somewhere else    
a = 5;
b = 'Goodbye';

I’m aware that assigning a variable on declaration will set its type. But in JavaScript, this can be easily changed by assigning a value of a different type, so doesn’t really protect it in any way.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of the above?

Answer 1

I believe that the advantage is: Order in your code.
So you’ll know right from the beginning of the code which type is which var.

The disadvantage is more code lines and size of the file.