Declare a class property outside of a class method
@nem035 is right that it is in proposal stage.
However, @nem035's sugggetion is one way to achieve it as class instance member.
// Declare static class property here
Seems you are looking to declare a static member. If yes, JavaScript way is
class Point {
// ...
}
Point.a = '22';
The way you are actually expecting can be done in TypeScript
class Point {
static a = 22;
}
The compiled output will be same as above example
Point.a = '22';
Initializing properties directly on a class in ES6 is not possible, only methods can currently be declared in this way. Same rules stand in ES7 as well.
However, it is a proposed feature that might come after ES7 (currently in stage 3). Here is the official proposal.
Additionally, the syntax the proposal is suggesting is slightly different (=
instead of :
):
class Point {
// Declare class property
a = 22
// Declare class static property
static b = 33
}
If you are using Babel, you can use the stage 3 settings to enable this feature.
Here's a Babel REPL example
The other way to do this in ES6, other than in the constructor, is to do it after the class definition:
class Point {
// ...
}
// Declare class property
Point.prototype.a = 22;
// Declare class static property
Point.b = 33;
Here's a good SO Thread diving into this topic some more
Note:
As Bergi mentioned in the comments, the suggested syntax:
class Point {
// Declare class property
a = 22
}
is just syntactic sugar to provide a shortcut for this code:
class Point {
constructor() {
this.a = 22;
}
}
Where both of those statements assign a property to an instance.
However, this isn't exactly the same as assigning to the prototype:
class Point {
constructor() {
this.a = 22; // this becomes a property directly on the instance
}
}
Point.prototype.b = 33; // this becomes a property on the prototype
Both would still be available via an instance:
var point = new Point();
p.a // 22
p.b // 33
But getting b
would require going up the prototype chain while a
is available directly on the object.