What’s an elegant way to check for null values in JavaScript, especially when parsing URL parameters?

General Discussions
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1

I’m using this jQuery snippet to get URL parameters:

$.urlParam = function(name){
    var results = new RegExp('[\\?&]' + name + '=([^&#]*)').exec(window.location.href);
    return results[1] || 0;
}

But I want to add an isnull JavaScript check so it returns 0 if the parameter doesn’t exist (i.e., results is null).

The usual if (results == null) { … } feels clunky.

Is there a cleaner way?

2

You can simplify with modern JS using optional chaining (?.) and nullish coalescing (??):

return results?.[1] ?? 0;

This means if results or results[1] is null or undefined, return 0. Clean, concise, and easy to understand!

3

@Shreshthaseth If you want to keep it ES5-compatible, a ternary operator makes it less bulky:

return results ? results[1] : 0;

This does the null check inline without multiple lines, keeping your function tidy.

4

Another elegant approach is using logical AND (&&) to guard the access:

return (results && results[1]) || 0;

It returns results[1] if results exists, otherwise 0.

This is a common idiom familiar to many JavaScript developers.