Variable coming back undefined Javascript

Question

My return variable keeps coming back undefined. Can someone please explain why? as far as I can tell it should be in scope.

var countBs = function(word) {
  var count = 0;
  for (var i = 0; i < word.length; i++){
    if (word.charAt[i] == 'B'){
      count += 1;
      return count;
    };
  };
};

console.log(countBs('BBABBAB'))

word.charAt is a function. When you develop - ensure you understand every expression in your code and that you have checked that every expression returns exactly what you expect - using a debugger or at least a console.log — zerkms
– zerkms, Commented Aug 19, 2018 at 21:17
@Luca Explain why? Maybe he doesn't want to iterate if a value is found? — Adrian
– Adrian, Commented Aug 19, 2018 at 21:19

jh314 · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-19 21:23:52Z

1

You need to return count at the end of the function, and use .charAt(i):

var countBs = function (word) {
  var count = 0;
  for (var i = 0; i < word.length; i++){
    if (word.charAt(i) == 'B'){
      count += 1;
    };
  }
  return count;
}

edited Aug 19, 2018 at 21:23

answered Aug 19, 2018 at 21:22

jh314

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3 Comments

Chinonso Chukwuogor Over a year ago

This solves the problem. but i'm still curious to know why the original code snippet returns undefined. I would expect it to return 1

jh314 Over a year ago

word.charAt[i] is always undefined, so the if is never true.

Chinonso Chukwuogor Over a year ago

Oh. I didn't notice charAt was being used as an array. my bad

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