Using global symbols

ES6 introduced a new type: Symbol. This new type is immutable, and it is often used for metaprogramming purposes, as it can be used as property keys like string. There are two types of symbols, local and global. Symbol-keyed properties of an object are not included in the output of JSON.stringify(), but the util.inspect() function includes them by default.

Learn more about symbols at https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Symbol.

Symbol(string)

Symbols created via Symbol(string) are local to the caller function. For this reason, we often use them to simulate private fields, like so:

const kField = Symbol('kField');

console.log(kField === Symbol('kField')); // false

class MyObject {
  constructor() {
    this[kField] = 'something';
  }
}

module.exports.MyObject = MyObject;

Symbols are not fully private, as the data could be accessed anyway:

for (const s of Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(obj)) {
  const desc = s.toString().replace(/Symbol\((.*)\)$/, '$1');
  if (desc === 'kField') {
    console.log(obj[s]); // 'something'
  }
}

Local symbols make it harder for developers to monkey patch/access private fields, as they require more work than a property prefixed with an _. Monkey patching private API that were not designed to be monkey-patchable make maintaining and evolving Node.js harder, as private properties are not documented and can change within a patch release. Some extremely popular modules in the ecosystem monkey patch some internals, making it impossible for us to update and improve those areas without causing issues for a significant amount of users.

Symbol.for(string)

Symbols created with Symbol.for(string) are global and unique to the same V8 Isolate. On the first call to Symbol.for(string) a symbol is stored in a global registry and easily retrieved for every call of Symbol.for(string). However, this might cause problems when two module authors use the same symbol for different reasons.

const s = Symbol.for('hello');
console.log(s === Symbol.for('hello')); // true

In the Node.js runtime we prefix all our global symbols with nodejs., e.g. Symbol.for('nodejs.hello').

Global symbols should be preferred when a developer-facing interface is needed to allow behavior customization, i.e., metaprogramming.