What does this empty string mean?

<script type="text/javascript">

        var step = 4;

        function expandPanel()

        {

            var panel = document.getElementById('panel');

            if ( panel.clientHeight < (panel.originalHeight-step))

            {

                //clientWidth

                var h = panel.clientHeight + step;

                panel.style.height = h+"px";

                setTimeout("expandPanel()", 100); 

            }

            else

            {

                panel.style.height = "";

                var panelTitle = document.getElementById('panelTitle');

                panelTitle.firstChild.nodeValue = 'Collapse';



            }

        }



        function collapsePanel()

        {

            var panel = document.getElementById('panel');



            if ( panel.clientHeight >= step)

            {

                var h = panel.clientHeight - step;

                panel.style.height = h+"px";

                setTimeout("collapsePanel()", 100);

            }

            else

            {

                panel.style.display = 'none';

                var panelTitle = document.getElementById('panelTitle');

                panelTitle.firstChild.nodeValue = 'Expand';

            }





        }



        function changePanel()

        {

            var panel = document.getElementById('panel');

            if (!panel.style.height || 

                (panel.style.display == 'none'))

            {

                if (panel.style.display == 'none')

                {

                    panel.style.display = '';

                    expandPanel();

                }

                else

                {

                    panel.originalHeight = panel.clientHeight;

                    collapsePanel();

                }

            }

        }

    </script>

There is an empty string assigned to the height and display CSS properties (via CSSOM). What does it mean in this case?

All it does is just wipes out that CSS property. If the style attribute looked like this before:

<div style="height: 100px"></div>

It will now look like this:

<div style=""></div>