What is the Meaning of “$” Sign in JavaScript

In JavaScript, the “$” symbol is not a reserved word or keyword and has no special meaning. It is a simple character that can be used as part of a variable or function name. It acts as a JavaScript identifier, meaning they identify an object the same way a name would. Moreover, it is often utilized in popular JavaScript libraries like jQuery.

This post will discuss the meaning of the “$” sign and its usage in JavaScript.

What is the Meaning of the “$” Sign in JavaScript?

The “$” sign is not a special character in JavaScript and doesn’t have a special meaning or function. However, in JavaScript, it can be utilized as:

• an identifier
• a shortcut of function
• in template literals

Method 1: How to Use the “$” Sign as an Identifier?

In JavaScript, an identifier is a name used to identify a variable, function, or property. The first character of an identifier must be a letter, a dollar sign ($), or an underscore (_), and any following characters may also be digits (0-9). Although JavaScript treats “$” as an alphabetic character, that’s why it can also be used as a variable name in JavaScript.

Example

Create a variable that acts as an identifier:

Pass the identifier to the console.log() method that will identify the stored value in a variable:

Output

Method 2: How to Use the “$” Sign as a Shortcut of Function?

The “$” sign can be used as a shortcut for a function in JavaScript by assigning a function to the $ variable or using the $ sign as a function name.

Here’s an example of how you can use the $ sign as a shortcut for a function.

Example

Define a function for adding numbers named “add”:

Assign the add() function to a “$” variable, which means that the “$” variable is now a reference to the add function:

Call the add() function using “$()” by passing values:

Output

You can also use the “$” sign as the function name itself.

Output

Note that using the $ sign as a function name or a variable name is not a good practice because it can be confusing and may cause conflicts with other libraries or code that use the $ sign in a different way.

Method 3: How to Use the “$” Sign in Template Literals?

In JavaScript, the “$” sign can embed expressions in template literals. Template literals are strings surrounded by backticks (`) instead of single or double quotation marks. They allow you to embed expressions inside the string using placeholders in the form of “${expression}”.

Example

Create two variables “x” and “y” with values “5” and “11”, respectively:

Store the product of x and y in variable “z”:

Print the result using template literals:

Output

That’s all about the usage of “$” sign in JavaScript.

Conclusion

The “$” sign is not a special character in JavaScript. Still, it can be used as a variable name, identifier, function shortcut, or in template literals to embed the result with a string in the form of an expression. However, using the “$” sign as a function or variable name is not a good practice, but using it as a template literal is very helpful. This post described the meaning of the “$” sign and the methods to utilize it in JavaScript.