JavaScript Environment - React Native

import TableRow from '@site/core/TableRowWithCodeBlock';

JavaScript Runtime

When using React Native, you're going to be running your JavaScript code in up to three environments:

In most cases, React Native will use Hermes, an open-source JavaScript engine optimized for React Native.
If Hermes is disabled, React Native will use JavaScriptCore, the JavaScript engine that powers Safari. Note that on iOS, JavaScriptCore does not use JIT due to the absence of writable executable memory in iOS apps.
When using Chrome debugging, all JavaScript code runs within Chrome itself, communicating with native code via WebSockets. Chrome uses V8 as its JavaScript engine.

While these environments are very similar, you may end up hitting some inconsistencies. It is best to avoid relying on specifics of any runtime.

JavaScript Syntax Transformers

Syntax transformers make writing code more enjoyable by allowing you to use new JavaScript syntax without having to wait for support on all interpreters.

React Native ships with the Babel JavaScript compiler. Check Babel documentation on its supported transformations for more details.

A full list of React Native's enabled transformations can be found in @react-native/babel-preset.

<table> <thead> <tr><th>Transformation</th><th>Code</th></tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr><td className="table-heading" colSpan="2">ECMAScript 5</td></tr> <TableRow name="Reserved Words" code="promise.catch(function() {...});" /> <tr><td className="table-heading" colSpan="2">ECMAScript 2015 (ES6)</td></tr> <TableRow name="Arrow functions" code="<C onPress={() => this.setState({pressed: true})} />" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/learn-es2015/#arrows" /> <TableRow name="Block scoping" code="let greeting = 'hi';" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/learn-es2015/#let-const" /> <TableRow name="Call spread" code="Math.max(...array);" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/learn-es2015/#default-rest-spread" /> <TableRow name="Classes" code="class C extends React.Component {render() { return <View />; }}" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/learn-es2015/#classes" /> <TableRow name="Computed Properties" code="const key = 'abc'; const obj = {[key]: 10};" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/learn-es2015/#enhanced-object-literals" /> <TableRow name="Constants" code="const answer = 42;" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/learn-es2015/#let-const" /> <TableRow name="Destructuring" code="const {isActive, style} = this.props;" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/learn-es2015/#destructuring" /> <TableRow name="for…of" code="for (var num of [1, 2, 3]) {...};" url="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/for...of" /> <TableRow name="Function Name" code="let number = x => x;" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-function-name" /> <TableRow name="Literals" code="const b = 0b11; const o = 0o7; const u = 'Hello\u{000A}\u{0009}!';" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-literals" /> <TableRow name="Modules" code="import React, {Component} from 'react';" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/learn-es2015/#modules" /> <TableRow name="Object Concise Method" code="const obj = {method() { return 10; }};" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/learn-es2015/#enhanced-object-literals" /> <TableRow name="Object Short Notation" code="const name = 'vjeux'; const obj = {name};" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/learn-es2015/#enhanced-object-literals" /> <TableRow name="Parameters" code="function test(x = 'hello', {a, b}, ...args) {}" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-parameters" /> <TableRow name="Rest Params" code="function(type, ...args) {};" url="https://github.com/sebmarkbage/ecmascript-rest-spread" /> <TableRow name="Shorthand Properties" code="const o = {a, b, c};" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-shorthand-properties" /> <TableRow name="Sticky Regex" code="const a = /o+/y;" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-sticky-regex" /> <TableRow name="Template Literals" code="const who = 'world'; const str = `Hello ${who}`;" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/learn-es2015/#template-strings" /> <TableRow name="Unicode Regex" code="const string = 'foo💩bar'; const match = string.match(/foo(.)bar/u);" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-unicode-regex" /> <tr><td className="table-heading" colSpan="2">ECMAScript 2016 (ES7)</td></tr> <TableRow name="Exponentiation Operator" code="let x = 10 ** 2;" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-exponentiation-operator" /> <tr><td className="table-heading" colSpan="2">ECMAScript 2017 (ES8)</td></tr> <TableRow name="Async Functions" code="async function doStuffAsync() {const foo = await doOtherStuffAsync();};" url="https://github.com/tc39/ecmascript-asyncawait" /> <TableRow name="Function Trailing Comma" code="function f(a, b, c,) {};" url="https://github.com/jeffmo/es-trailing-function-commas" /> <tr><td className="table-heading" colSpan="2">ECMAScript 2018 (ES9)</td></tr> <TableRow name="Object Spread" code="const extended = {...obj, a: 10};" url="https://github.com/tc39/proposal-object-rest-spread" /> <tr><td className="table-heading" colSpan="2">ECMAScript 2019 (ES10)</td></tr> <TableRow name="Optional Catch Binding" code="try {throw 0; } catch { doSomethingWhichDoesNotCareAboutTheValueThrown();}" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-proposal-optional-catch-binding" /> <tr><td className="table-heading" colSpan="2">ECMAScript 2020 (ES11)</td></tr> <TableRow name="Dynamic Imports" code="const package = await import('package'); package.function()" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-syntax-dynamic-import" /> <TableRow name="Nullish Coalescing Operator" code="const foo = object.foo ?? 'default';" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-proposal-nullish-coalescing-operator" /> <TableRow name="Optional Chaining" code="const name = obj.user?.name;" url="https://github.com/tc39/proposal-optional-chaining" /> <tr><td className="table-heading" colSpan="2">ECMAScript 2022 (ES13)</td></tr> <TableRow name="Class Fields" code="class Bork {static a = 'foo'; static b; x = 'bar'; y;}" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-proposal-class-properties" /> <tr><td className="table-heading" colSpan="2">Stage 1 Proposal</td></tr> <TableRow name="Export Default From" code="export v from 'mod';" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-proposal-export-default-from" /> <tr><td className="table-heading" colSpan="2">Miscellaneous</td></tr> <TableRow name="Babel Template" code="template(`const %%importName%% = require(%%source%%);`);" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-template" /> <TableRow name="Flow" code="function foo(x: ?number): string {};" url="https://flowtype.org/" /> <TableRow name="ESM to CJS" code="export default 42;" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-modules-commonjs" /> <TableRow name="JSX" code="<View style={{color: 'red'}} />" url="https://react.dev/learn/writing-markup-with-jsx" /> <TableRow name="Object Assign" code="Object.assign(a, b);" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-object-assign" /> <TableRow name="React Display Name" code="const bar = createReactClass({});" url="https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-react-display-name" /> <TableRow name="TypeScript" code="function foo(x: {hello: true, target: 'react native!'}): string {};" url="https://www.typescriptlang.org/" /> </tbody> </table>

Polyfills

Many standard functions are also available on all the supported JavaScript runtimes.

Browser

CommonJS require
md [console.{log, warn, error, info, debug, trace, table, group, groupCollapsed, groupEnd}](https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/console-api)
XMLHttpRequest, fetch
{set, clear}{Timeout, Interval, Immediate}, {request, cancel}AnimationFrame

ECMAScript 2015 (ES6)

Array.from
md Array.prototype.{[find](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/find), [findIndex](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/findIndex)}
Object.assign
md String.prototype.{[startsWith](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/startsWith), [endsWith](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/endsWith), [repeat](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/repeat), [includes](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/includes)}

ECMAScript 2016 (ES7)

md Array.prototype.[includes](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/includes)

ECMAScript 2017 (ES8)

md Object.{[entries](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Object/entries), [values](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Object/values)}

Specific

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