Q94- What is the type of null? Why is it an object?

In JavaScript:

console.log(typeof null); // "object"

So, null appears as an object, even though it is not really an object.

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Why typeof null is "object"

• This is a historical bug in JavaScript.
• In the early implementation, values were stored in a type tag system, where objects had a type tag of 0.
• null was represented as a null pointer (0), so typeof null returned "object".
• It has been kept for backward compatibility.

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Important Points

• null represents intentional absence of any object value.
• It is different from undefined, which means a variable has been declared but not assigned a value.

let a;
console.log(a);        // undefined
console.log(typeof a); // "undefined"

let b = null;
console.log(b);        // null
console.log(typeof b); // "object"

• Use === for checks to avoid type coercion:

console.log(b === null); // true
console.log(b == null);  // true (also matches undefined)

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⚡ In short:

null is a primitive that represents no value, but typeof null returns "object" due to a historical JavaScript bug. Always use strict checks (=== null) to identify it.