what is the best way to check variable type in javascript

Question

<script type="text/javascript">   
function saveName (firstName) {
    function capitalizeName () {
        return firstName.toUpperCase();
    }
    var capitalized = capitalizeName();console.log(capitalized instanceof String);
    return capitalized; 
}
console.log(saveName("Robert")); // Returns "ROBERT"
</script>

Question:

I want to check the type of capitalized , so I use capitalized instanceof String? But it shows: false in console, I do not want to try capitalized instanceof Function, Object...It will take too much time, so what is the best way to detect a variable type?

Answer 1

The best way is to use the typeof keyword.

typeof "hello" // "string"

The typeof operator maps an operand to one of six values: "string", "number", "object", "function", "undefined" and "boolean". The instanceof method tests if the provided function's prototype is in the object's prototype chain.

This Wikibooks article along with this MDN articles does a pretty good job of summing up JavaScript's types.