Is there a way to check for both `null` and `undefined`?

Using a juggling-check, you can test both null and undefined in one hit: if (x == null) { If you use a strict-check, it will only be true for values set to null and won't evaluate as true for undefined variables: if (x === null) { You can try this with various values using this example: var a: number; var b: number = null; function check(x, name) { if (x == null) { console.log(name + ' == null'); } if (x === null) { console.log(name + ' === null'); } if (typeof x === 'undefined') { console.log(name + ' is undefined'); } } check(a, 'a'); check(b, 'b'); Output "a == null" "a is undefined" "b == null" "b === null"