Empty statement

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

An empty statement is used to provide no statement, although the JavaScript syntax would expect one.

Try it

const array = [1, 2, 3];

// Assign all array values to 0
for (let i = 0; i < array.length; array[i++] = 0 /* empty statement */);

console.log(array);
// Expected output: Array [0, 0, 0]

Syntax

;

Description

The empty statement is a semicolon (;) indicating that no statement will be executed, even if JavaScript syntax requires one.

The opposite behavior, where you want multiple statements, but JavaScript only allows a single one, is possible using a block statement, which combines several statements into a single one.

Examples

Empty loop body

The empty statement is sometimes used with loop statements. See the following example with an empty loop body:

js
const arr = [1, 2, 3];

// Assign all array values to 0
for (let i = 0; i < arr.length; arr[i++] = 0) /* empty statement */ ;

console.log(arr);
// [0, 0, 0]

Unintentional usage

It is a good idea to comment intentional use of the empty statement, as it is not really obvious to distinguish from a normal semicolon.

In the following example, the usage is probably not intentional:

js
if (condition);      // Caution, this "if" does nothing!
  killTheUniverse(); // So this always gets executed!!!

Specifications

Specification

ECMAScript® 2027 Language Specification
# sec-empty-statement

Browser compatibility

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This page was last modified on Jul 20, 2025 by MDN contributors.

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