Variable Types

Javascript possesses a series of different variable types.

var is the original type, and it is function scoped. That means if a var is declared within a function, its data is only accessible from within that function call (though nested functions can access var's contents). A var placed in an if statement, for example, will still be executed in the global context (unless that if statement is executed within a function call).

let and const are ES6 additions to the language. They are both block scoped rather than function-scoped. This means that in addition to being confined to the execution context in which they are executed, they are also scoped to their individual blocks of code. In this instance, a let or const identifier would be scoped to within an if statement, or a for loop, and so on. This gives them more limited scope but allows the data to be more effectively contained to avoid memory leaks or other problems.

let functions in the same manner as var, in that its contents, or its relation to data can be changed or modified at any point.

const on the other hand, can never be reassigned. Once it has been assigned to a data block, that relationship is permanent. However, if a const is attached to an array or object, additional items can be added to that object.

In other words...

const planet = 'Earth';
planet = 'Mars';

...would result in an error, because const planet is permanetly assigned to earth.

However...

const planets = ['Earth'];
planets.push('Mars');

console.log(planets);

> ['Earth', 'Mars']

...this code would not cause an error. The const planets is still assigned to the original array. But additional planets can be added to the array at any time.