The exercises at the end of each hour of Teach Yourself JavaScript 1.5 (Second Edition) are listed below, with answers where appropriate. Answers appear in green bold text below each exercise, and often link to example pages - view the source of these pages for the complete answer.

NOTE, 1/29/2002: The answers for Parts I and II are now online.

[Skip to Hour 24]

Part I: Getting Started

Hour 1: Understanding JavaScript

• Exercise 1: Visit this book's Web site...
• Answer: (self-explanatory)


• Exercise 2: Visit Netscape's Developer Web site...
• Answer: (self-explanatory)

Hour 2: Creating a Simple Script

• Exercise 1: Add HTML Comments to the Date and Time script, as described in the Workshop section.
• Answer: Here is the script with HTML comments.


• Exercise 2: Add a millisecond field to the large clock.
• Answer: Here is the large clock with milliseconds.


• Exercise 3: Change the large clock to display UTC.
• Answer: Here is the UTC version of the large clock.

Hour 3: Exploring JavaScript's Capabilities

• Exercise 1: Browse the Web and see if you can find examples of each of the uses of JavaScript mentioned during this hour.
• Answer: (self-explanatory)


• Exercise 2: If you use Netscape, try typing about:plugins in the Location field.
• Answer: (self-explanatory)

Hour 4: How JavaScript Programs Work

• Exercise 1: Examine the Date and Time script you created in Hour 2 and find any examples of functions and objects being used.
• Answer: In the Date and Time script, the now variable is an object that stores a date. Several functions are used in this script: Date(), to create the Date object, now.toString() and now.toGMTString(), methods of the Date object, and document.write().


• Exercise 2: Add comments to the Date and Time script to make it more clear what each line does.
• Answer: Here is the Date and Time Script with comments. Of course, your comments need not be identical.

Part II: Learning JavaScript Basics

Hour 5: Using Variables and Functions

• Exercise 1: Modify the Greet function to accept two parameters, who1 and who2, and to include both names in a single greeting dialog. Modify Listing 5.4 to use a single function call to the new function.
• Answer: Here is the Modified Greeting Example.


• Exercise 2: Add the Average function to the header of a simple HTML document. Add a function call that uses the alert statement to display the average and verify that the result is correct.
• Answer: Here is the Average function example.


• Exercise 3: Modify Listing 5.6 by removing the var keyword before name2 in the Greet function. Are the greetings different from the original version?
• Answer: Here is the Modified Listing 5.6. Because the var keyword isn't used, the statement name2="Barney" in the function changes the global name2 variable
. Thus, when the function is called, the names "Fred" and "Barney" are displayed. In the original Listing 5.6, since var is used, the name2 assignment within the function creates a separate local variable, and doesn't affect the greetings displayed in the alert boxes.


• Exercise 4: Add some additional customizable features to Listing 5.7. For example, you could prompt the user for a URL and include a link on the page.
• Answer: You could modify this example in many ways, but here's my version.

Hour 6: Using Strings and Arrays

• Exercise 1: Use Netscape's JavaScript console to create several strings and experiment with them.
• Answer: (self-explanatory)


• Exercise 2: Modify the scrolling message example to scroll in the opposite direction.
• Answer: This is easier than it sounds. All you need to do is start the pos variable at msg.length instead of zero, decrement (pos--) instead of increment, and modify the if statement to return pos to msg.length when it reaches zero. Here's the complete reverse scrolling message example.

Hour 7: Testing and Comparing Values

• Exercise 1: Modify Listing 7.5 to be case-insensitive.
• Answer: Here is the case-insensitive version.


• Exercise 2: Modify the script in Listing 7.5 so that if a keyword does not match one of the defined ones, the text the user entered will be used as a URL.
• Answer: Here is the modified example. (View the HTML source here) This only requires a minor change to the default case.

Hour 8: Repeating Yourself: Using Loops

• Exercise 1: Modify Listing 8.7 to sort the names in alphabetical order before displaying them.
• Answer: Here is the sorted name list example. This requires only one added statement: names=names.sort();


• Exercise 2: Modify Listing 8.7 to prompt for exactly ten names. What happens if you click the Cancel button instead of entering a name?
• Answer: Here is the 10 name example using a for loop instead of the original do...while loop. If you click Cancel, it counts as one of the ten names in the loop, but doesn't add a name to the list, because the if statement within the loop checks for valid names.

Part III: Moving on to Advanced JavaScript Features

Hour 9: Using Built-in Objects

• Exercise 1: Modify the random number script in Listing 9.3 to prompt the user for the number of random numbers to generate.
• Answer: Here is the example with prompting.


• Exercise 2: Modify the random number script to run three times, calculating a total of 15,000 random numbers, and display separate totals for each set of 5,000.
• Answer: Here is the modified script.

Hour 10: Working with the Document Object Model

• Exercise 1: Modify the Back and Forward example in Listing 10.2 to include a Reload button along with the Back and Forward buttons.
• Answer: Here is the example with Reload button.


• Exercise 2: Modify the Back and Forward example to display the current number of history entries.
• Answer: Here is the modified example.

Hour 11: Creating Custom Objects

• Exercise 1: Modify the definition of the Card object to include a property called email for the person's email address. Modify the PrintCard function to include this property.
• Answer: Here is a modified version of Listing 11-3 that includes these changes.


• Exercise 2: Make a script that adds a first5 method, which returns the first five characters, to the String object.
• Answer: Here is the example script. This is based on the example in Listing 11.2.

Hour 12: Responding to Events

• Exercise 1: Add several additional links to the document in Listing 12.3. Include event handlers that display a unique description for each link.
• Answer: Here is the document with added links.


• Exercise 2: Modify Listing 12.3 to display a default welcome message in the status line whenever a description isn't being displayed.
• Answer: Here is the example with default message.

Part IV: Working with Web Pages

Hour 13: Using Windows and Frames

Hour 14: Getting Data with Forms

Hour 15: Using Graphics and Animation

Hour 16: Creating Cross-Browser Scripts

Part V: Scripting Advanced Web Features

Hour 17: Working with Style Sheets

Hour 18: Creating Dynamic Pages with the DOM

Hour 19: Using Advanced DOM Features

Hour 20: Working with Multimedia and Plug-ins

Part VI: Putting it All Together

Hour 21: Finding and Handling Errors

Hour 22: Improving a Web Page with JavaScript

Hour 23: Creating a JavaScript Game

Hour 24: Where Do We Go From Here?