JavaScript Version Numbers

Old ECMAScript versions was named by numbers: ES5 and ES6.

From 2016, versions are named by year: ES2016, 2018, 2020 ...

New Features in ECMAScript 2016

This chapter introduces the new features in ECMAScript 2016:

• JavaScript Exponentiation (**)
• JavaScript Exponentiation assignment (**=)
• JavaScript Array includes()

Browser Support

ES 2016 is fully supported in all modern browsers since March 2017:

ES 2016 is not supported in Internet Explorer.

Exponentiation Operator

The exponentiation operator (**) raises the first operand to the power of the second operand.

Example

let x = 5;
let z = x ** 2;

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x ** y produces the same result as Math.pow(x, y):

Example

let x = 5;
let z = Math.pow(x,2);

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Exponentiation Assignment

The exponentiation assignment operator (**=) raises the value of a variable to the power of the right operand.

Example

let x = 5;
x **= 2;

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The Exponentiation Operator is supported in all modern browsers since March 2017:

JavaScript Array includes()

ECMAScript 2016 introduced Array.includes to arrays.

This allows us to check if an element is present in an array:

Example

const fruits = ["Banana", "Orange", "Apple", "Mango"];

fruits.includes("Mango");

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Array.includes is supported in all modern browsers since August 2016: