Overview

ECMAScript (ES) is the standard upon which JavaScript is based. ES6 (also known as ECMAScript 2015) was a major update that introduced many modern features that are now standard in web development.

Key ES6+ Features

  • Arrow Functions: A concise syntax for writing functions.
  • Classes: Syntactic sugar over prototypal inheritance.
  • Modules: Native support for importing and exporting code (import/export).
  • Destructuring: A convenient way to extract values from arrays and objects.
  • Template Literals: Enhanced string literals with support for multi-line strings and interpolation.

Evolution

New versions of ECMAScript are released annually, continuously adding features like optional chaining, nullish coalescing, and top-level await.

Related Terms