Daily Software Tips & Tricks
Bite-sized knowledge to improve your coding skills daily.
Stop the Undefined Crashes
February 13, 2026
We have all seen the dreaded "Cannot read property of undefined" error in JavaScript. Instead of writing long, defensive chains of logic like `if (user && user.profile && user.profile.name)`, use the optional chaining operator `?.` to simplify your life.
Writing `user?.profile?.name` will safely return undefined if any part of the chain is missing, preventing your app from crashing. It makes your code much more readable and robust with almost zero extra effort.