New Symbol Bigint

ID

javascript.new_symbol_bigint

Severity

critical

Remediation Complexity

trivial

Remediation Risk

low

Remediation Effort

low

Resource

Reliability

Language

JavaScript

Tags

reliability, runtime-error

Description

Reports new Symbol(…​) and new BigInt(…​). Neither Symbol nor BigInt is a constructor: both throw a TypeError the moment the line runs, so the value is never produced and the surrounding function never returns.

const id = new Symbol("id");               // FLAW — TypeError: Symbol is not a constructor
const big = new BigInt(9007199254740993);  // FLAW — TypeError: BigInt is not a constructor

Rationale

  • Both holes in the language are deliberate. A symbol is unique by construction, so an object wrapping one would give two distinct things claiming the same identity. A BigInt object wrapper would compare and coerce unlike the primitive it wraps.

  • TC39 closed both cases by leaving the internal slot absent, which is why the failure is immediate and total rather than a subtle misbehaviour later.

  • The new arrives by habit — every other global that produces a value (Date, Map, Error) takes it — so the line reads as correct.

Remediation

Call the function without new, or write the BigInt literal directly.

const id = Symbol("id");
const big = BigInt("9007199254740993");
const big = 9007199254740993n;

References

© 2026 Xygeni. All rights reserved