While utilizing alternatives such as the dot operator make sense when needing to access some stored information, I'm having a little bit of difficulty understanding why and in what scenarios we would use variables to accomplish the same task.
For example:
var myObj = {
prop1: "val1",
prop2: "val2"
};
var prop1val = myObj.prop1; // val1
var prop2val = myObj.prop2; // val2
versus:
var testObj = {
12: "Namath",
16: "Montana",
19: "Unitas"
};
var playerNumber = 16;
var player = testObj[playerNumber];
Is it simply a matter of preference, or are there actual benefits to using each?
Bracket syntax allows you to dynamically access property names, whereas dot syntax does not. Here is an example of how it could be used:
var data = {
prop1: "I am prop 1",
prop2: "I am prop 2"
};
function clickHandler () {
var prop = this.getAttribute("data-property");
console.log(data[prop]); // <-- Dynamically access object properties with [] syntax
}
var buttons = document.querySelectorAll("[data-property]");
for (var i = 0; i < buttons.length; i++) {
var button = buttons[i];
button.addEventListener("click", clickHandler);
}
<button data-property="prop1">Get Prop 1</button>
<button data-property="prop2">Get Prop 2</button>
Bracket syntax also allows you the ability to use object properties that are otherwise invalid variable names (which is not recommended, but is doable).
For example:
var data = {
"property name with spaces": "I'm a property with spaces",
"another-invalid-variable-name": "I'm an invalid variable name"
};
console.log(data["property name with spaces"])
console.log(data["another-invalid-variable-name"])
One thing that distinguishes them is that with dot notation, you have to already know the property you want to access.
Consider the instance where you may want to obtain user input or some other external factor to decide what property to obtain:
function myFunction(property) {
var data = {
thingOne: "1",
thingTwo: "2"
}
return data[property];
}
In the above function, one could not write return data.property - it would look for a property called property! You'd have to use index notation to get the correct value.
Bracket syntax is dynamic- It is typically used for collections, such as Lists, Arrays, Dictionaries, et cetera. Period notation is more useful for non-iterable fields, methods, and everything else you might want to access from a class.
For instance, you could iterate over a list with
var aggregate;
for (int i = 0; i < arrayOfNumbers.length; i++){
aggregate += arrayOfNumbers[i];
}
It is usually based on preference, however I like to use bracket notation for arrays, and dot notation for objects. However if there is a property on the object with a dash in it, only bracket notation can be used.
foo = { "bar-baz": "value" };
foo["bar-baz"]; //returns "value"
foo.bar-baz; //error
The subscript syntax is more flexible than dot notation in a few ways. In your own example, performing some of the following operations is clearly impossible:
var playerNumber = 16;
var player = testObj.playerNumber; //null; this is equivalent to:
var player = testObj["playerNumber"]; //which is subscripting by the string "playerNumber"
var player = testObj[playerNumber]; //this is valid and produces the expected result: subscripting with the value 16
The dot notation is limited in that it cannot be used with variables holding dynamic values. testObj.playerNumber is not at all the same as testObj[playerNumber].
It's difficult to explain the case by words, let me give an example:
var myObj = {
'name': 'Umut',
'age' : 34
};
var prop = 'name';
var value = 'Onur';
myObj[name] = value; // This does not work
eval('myObj.' + name) = value; //Bad coding ;)
How can I set a variable property with variable value in a JavaScript object?
myObj[prop] = value;
That should work. You mixed up the name of the variable and its value. But indexing an object with strings to get at its properties works fine in JavaScript.
myObj.name=value
or
myObj['name']=value (Quotes are required)
Both of these are interchangeable.
Edit: I'm guessing you meant myObj[prop] = value, instead of myObj[name] = value. Second syntax works fine: http://jsfiddle.net/waitinforatrain/dNjvb/1/
You can get the property the same way as you set it.
foo = {
bar: "value"
}
You set the value
foo["bar"] = "baz";
To get the value
foo["bar"]
will return "baz".
You could also create something that would be similar to a value object (vo);
SomeModelClassNameVO.js;
function SomeModelClassNameVO(name,id) {
this.name = name;
this.id = id;
}
Than you can just do;
var someModelClassNameVO = new someModelClassNameVO('name',1);
console.log(someModelClassNameVO.name);
simple as this
myObj.name = value;
When you create an object myObj as you have, think of it more like a dictionary. In this case, it has two keys, name, and age.
You can access these dictionaries in two ways:
Like an array (e.g. myObj[name]); or
Like a property (e.g. myObj.name); do note that some properties are reserved, so the first method is preferred.
You should be able to access it as a property without any problems. However, to access it as an array, you'll need to treat the key like a string.
myObj["name"]
Otherwise, javascript will assume that name is a variable, and since you haven't created a variable called name, it won't be able to access the key you're expecting.
You could do the following:
var currentObj = {
name: 'Umut',
age : 34
};
var newValues = {
name: 'Onur',
}
Option 1:
currentObj = Object.assign(currentObj, newValues);
Option 2:
currentObj = {...currentObj, ...newValues};
Option 3:
Object.keys(newValues).forEach(key => {
currentObj[key] = newValues[key];
});
Javascript objects can be used as maps. The following all is valid code:
var x = {};
x.a = 1;
x['b'] = 2; // the same as x.b = 2;
x[3] = 3; // x.3 won't work, but this syntax works fine. Also, x[3] == x['3'].
x['What, this works too?!?!?'] = 'Yup, it does!';
But today I tested another case which... seems to work, but raises some warning flags in my head because it looks... wrong:
x[null] = 42;
Now, it would be extremely cool if this worked as expected (I won't have to rewrite a bunch of code then), but can I rely on it? Or maybe this is just some undocumented behavior which just happens to work in all modern browsers but might as well cease working on the next release of Google Chrome?
Anything between the property brackets is converted to a string. null becomes "null", which is a valid property.
It's valid ECMAScript 5, but you may run into problems in some versions of Internet Explorer.
This is all fine:
x = {};
x[null] = 42;
x[null];
// 42
x = {"null": 42};
x[null];
// 42
However, IE8 doesn't accept the following with reserved words such as null:
x.null
// Error: Expected identifier
x = {null: 42}
// Expected identifier, string or number
(Both of the above work in Chrome, even with "use strict" enabled.)
I cannot leave comments so I created an answer...
While Rob W is correct his answer is a little misleading. The item between the square brackets is converted to a string using ToString(). So, a[null] only equals a['null'] because ToString( null ) == 'null'
take for instance
var a = 1;
var x = {}
x[a] = 20;
x['1'] = 30; -- this is exactly the same as the previous line and now x[a] == 30
If your environment supports ES6 and you need to be able to store a value for null as well as any arbitrary string then you can use a Map.
const a = new Map();
a.set(null, 'foo')
a.set('null', 'bar')
// Map { null => 'foo', 'null' => 'bar' }
x['null'] = 42;
I would strongly dis-recommend that, though, to avoid confusion.
Property names are strings. Every string will work, even ones that represent reserved identifiers.
Everything that's not a string will be converted into a string (by calling the object's toString() method):
a = ['FOO']; // an array
o = {}; // an object
o[a] = 'foo'; // using a as the property name
// o now is:
{
FOO: 'foo'
}
I'm learning JavaScript and while browsing through the jQuery library I see : (colon) being used a lot. What is this used for in JavaScript?
// Return an array of filtered elements (r)
// and the modified expression string (t)
return { r: r, t: t };
var o = {
r: 'some value',
t: 'some other value'
};
is functionally equivalent to
var o = new Object();
o.r = 'some value';
o.t = 'some other value';
And also, a colon can be used to label a statement. for example
var i = 100, j = 100;
outerloop:
while(i>0) {
while(j>0) {
j++
if(j>50) {
break outerloop;
}
}
i++
}
You guys are forgetting that the colon is also used in the ternary operator (though I don't know if jquery uses it for this purpose).
the ternary operator is an expression form (expressions return a value) of an if/then statement. it's used like this:
var result = (condition) ? (value1) : (value2) ;
A ternary operator could also be used to produce side effects just like if/then, but this is profoundly bad practice.
The ':' is a delimiter for key value pairs basically. In your example it is a Javascript Object Literal notation.
In javascript, Objects are defined with the colon delimiting the identifier for the property, and its value so you can have the following:
return {
Property1 : 125,
Property2 : "something",
Method1 : function() { /* do nothing */ },
array: [5, 3, 6, 7]
};
and then use it like:
var o = {
property1 : 125,
property2 : "something",
method1 : function() { /* do nothing */ },
array: [5, 3, 6, 7]
};
alert(o.property1); // Will display "125"
A subset of this is also known as JSON (Javascript Object Notation) which is useful in AJAX calls because it is compact and quick to parse in server-side languages and Javascript can easily de-serialize a JSON string into an object.
// The parenthesis '(' & ')' around the object are important here
var o = eval('(' + "{key: \"value\"}" + ')');
You can also put the key inside quotes if it contains some sort of special character or spaces, but I wouldn't recommend that because it just makes things harder to work with.
Keep in mind that JavaScript Object Literal Notation in the JavaScript language is different from the JSON standard for message passing. The main difference between the 2 is that functions and constructors are not part of the JSON standard, but are allowed in JS object literals.
It is part of the object literal syntax. The basic format is:
var obj = { field_name: "field value", other_field: 42 };
Then you can access these values with:
obj.field_name; // -> "field value"
obj["field_name"]; // -> "field value"
You can even have functions as values, basically giving you the methods of the object:
obj['func'] = function(a) { return 5 + a;};
obj.func(4); // -> 9
It can be used to list objects in a variable. Also, it is used a little bit in the shorthand of an if sentence:
var something = {face: 'hello',man: 'hey',go: 'sup'};
And calling it like this
alert(something.man);
Also the if sentence:
function something() {
(some) ? doathing() : dostuff(); // if some = true doathing();, else dostuff();
}
These are generally the scenarios where colon ':' is used in JavaScript
1- Declaring and Initializing an Object
var Car = {model:"2015", color:"blue"}; //car object with model and color properties
2- Setting a Label (Not recommended since it results in complicated control structure and Spaghetti code)
List:
while(counter < 50)
{
userInput += userInput;
counter++;
if(userInput > 10000)
{
break List;
}
}
3- In Switch Statement
switch (new Date().getDay()) {
case 6:
text = "Today is Saturday";
break;
case 0:
text = "Today is Sunday";
break;
default:
text = "Looking forward to the Weekend";
}
4- In Ternary Operator
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = age>18? "True" : "False";
Let's not forget the switch statement, where colon is used after each "case".
That's JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation. It's a quick way of describing an object, or a hash map. The thing before the colon is the property name, and the thing after the colon is its value. So in this example, there's a property "r", whose value is whatever's in the variable r. Same for t.
Another usage of colon in JavaScript is to rename a variable, that is:
const person = {
nickNameThatIUseOnStackOverflow: "schlingel",
age: 30,
firstName: "John"
};
let { nickNameThatIUseOnStackOverflow: nick } = person; // I take nickNameThatIUseOnStackOverflow but want to refer it as "nick" from now on.
nick = "schling";
This is useful if you use a third party library that returns values having awkward / long variable names that you want to rename in your code.
One stupid mistake I did awhile ago that might help some people.
Keep in mind that if you are using ":" in an event like this, the value will not change
var ondrag = (function(event, ui) {
...
nub0x: event.target.offsetLeft + event.target.clientWidth/2;
nub0y = event.target.offsetTop + event.target.clientHeight/2;
...
});
So "nub0x" will initialize with the first event that happens and will never change its value. But "nub0y" will change during the next events.
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What "Hidden Features" of JavaScript do you think every programmer should know?
After having seen the excellent quality of the answers to the following questions I thought it was time to ask it for JavaScript.
Hidden Features of HTML
Hidden Features of CSS
Hidden Features of PHP
Hidden Features of ASP.NET
Hidden Features of C#
Hidden Features of Java
Hidden Features of Python
Even though JavaScript is arguably the most important Client Side language right now (just ask Google) it's surprising how little most web developers appreciate how powerful it really is.
You don't need to define any parameters for a function. You can just use the function's arguments array-like object.
function sum() {
var retval = 0;
for (var i = 0, len = arguments.length; i < len; ++i) {
retval += arguments[i];
}
return retval;
}
sum(1, 2, 3) // returns 6
I could quote most of Douglas Crockford's excellent book
JavaScript: The Good Parts.
But I'll take just one for you, always use === and !== instead of == and !=
alert('' == '0'); //false
alert(0 == ''); // true
alert(0 =='0'); // true
== is not transitive. If you use === it would give false for
all of these statements as expected.
Functions are first class citizens in JavaScript:
var passFunAndApply = function (fn,x,y,z) { return fn(x,y,z); };
var sum = function(x,y,z) {
return x+y+z;
};
alert( passFunAndApply(sum,3,4,5) ); // 12
Functional programming techniques can be used to write elegant javascript.
Particularly, functions can be passed as parameters, e.g. Array.filter() accepts a callback:
[1, 2, -1].filter(function(element, index, array) { return element > 0 });
// -> [1,2]
You can also declare a "private" function that only exists within the scope of a specific function:
function PrintName() {
var privateFunction = function() { return "Steve"; };
return privateFunction();
}
You can use the in operator to check if a key exists in an object:
var x = 1;
var y = 3;
var list = {0:0, 1:0, 2:0};
x in list; //true
y in list; //false
1 in list; //true
y in {3:0, 4:0, 5:0}; //true
If you find the object literals too ugly you can combine it with the parameterless function tip:
function list()
{ var x = {};
for(var i=0; i < arguments.length; ++i) x[arguments[i]] = 0;
return x
}
5 in list(1,2,3,4,5) //true
Assigning default values to variables
You can use the logical or operator || in an assignment expression to provide a default value:
var a = b || c;
The a variable will get the value of c only if b is falsy (if is null, false, undefined, 0, empty string, or NaN), otherwise a will get the value of b.
This is often useful in functions, when you want to give a default value to an argument in case isn't supplied:
function example(arg1) {
arg1 || (arg1 = 'default value');
}
Example IE fallback in event handlers:
function onClick(e) {
e || (e = window.event);
}
The following language features have been with us for a long time, all JavaScript implementations support them, but they weren't part of the specification until ECMAScript 5th Edition:
The debugger statement
Described in: § 12.15 The debugger statement
This statement allows you to put breakpoints programmatically in your code just by:
// ...
debugger;
// ...
If a debugger is present or active, it will cause it to break immediately, right on that line.
Otherwise, if the debugger is not present or active this statement has no observable effect.
Multiline String literals
Described in: § 7.8.4 String Literals
var str = "This is a \
really, really \
long line!";
You have to be careful because the character next to the \ must be a line terminator, if you have a space after the \ for example, the code will look exactly the same, but it will raise a SyntaxError.
JavaScript does not have block scope (but it has closure so let's call it even?).
var x = 1;
{
var x = 2;
}
alert(x); // outputs 2
You can access object properties with [] instead of .
This allows you look up a property matching a variable.
obj = {a:"test"};
var propname = "a";
var b = obj[propname]; // "test"
You can also use this to get/set object properties whose name is not a legal identifier.
obj["class"] = "test"; // class is a reserved word; obj.class would be illegal.
obj["two words"] = "test2"; // using dot operator not possible with the space.
Some people don't know this and end up using eval() like this, which is a really bad idea:
var propname = "a";
var a = eval("obj." + propname);
This is harder to read, harder to find errors in (can't use jslint), slower to execute, and can lead to XSS exploits.
If you're Googling for a decent JavaScript reference on a given topic, include the "mdc" keyword in your query and your first results will be from the Mozilla Developer Center. I don't carry any offline references or books with me. I always use the "mdc" keyword trick to directly get to what I'm looking for. For example:
Google: javascript array sort mdc
(in most cases you may omit "javascript")
Update: Mozilla Developer Center has been renamed to Mozilla Developer Network. The "mdc" keyword trick still works, but soon enough we may have to start using "mdn" instead.
Maybe a little obvious to some...
Install Firebug and use console.log("hello"). So much better than using random alert();'s which I remember doing a lot a few years ago.
Private Methods
An object can have private methods.
function Person(firstName, lastName) {
this.firstName = firstName;
this.lastName = lastName;
// A private method only visible from within this constructor
function calcFullName() {
return firstName + " " + lastName;
}
// A public method available to everyone
this.sayHello = function () {
alert(calcFullName());
}
}
//Usage:
var person1 = new Person("Bob", "Loblaw");
person1.sayHello();
// This fails since the method is not visible from this scope
alert(person1.calcFullName());
Also mentioned in Crockford's "Javascript: The Good Parts":
parseInt() is dangerous. If you pass it a string without informing it of the proper base it may return unexpected numbers. For example parseInt('010') returns 8, not 10. Passing a base to parseInt makes it work correctly:
parseInt('010') // returns 8! (in FF3)
parseInt('010', 10); // returns 10 because we've informed it which base to work with.
Functions are objects and therefore can have properties.
fn = function(x) {
// ...
}
fn.foo = 1;
fn.next = function(y) {
//
}
I'd have to say self-executing functions.
(function() { alert("hi there");})();
Because Javascript doesn't have block scope, you can use a self-executing function if you want to define local variables:
(function() {
var myvar = 2;
alert(myvar);
})();
Here, myvar is does not interfere with or pollute the global scope, and disappears when the function terminates.
Know how many parameters are expected by a function
function add_nums(num1, num2, num3 ){
return num1 + num2 + num3;
}
add_nums.length // 3 is the number of parameters expected.
Know how many parameters are received by the function
function add_many_nums(){
return arguments.length;
}
add_many_nums(2,1,122,12,21,89); //returns 6
Here are some interesting things:
Comparing NaN with anything (even NaN) is always false, that includes ==, < and >.
NaN Stands for Not a Number but if you ask for the type it actually returns a number.
Array.sort can take a comparator function and is called by a quicksort-like driver (depends on implementation).
Regular expression "constants" can maintain state, like the last thing they matched.
Some versions of JavaScript allow you to access $0, $1, $2 members on a regex.
null is unlike anything else. It is neither an object, a boolean, a number, a string, nor undefined. It's a bit like an "alternate" undefined. (Note: typeof null == "object")
In the outermost context, this yields the otherwise unnameable [Global] object.
Declaring a variable with var, instead of just relying on automatic declaration of the variable gives the runtime a real chance of optimizing access to that variable
The with construct will destroy such optimzations
Variable names can contain Unicode characters.
JavaScript regular expressions are not actually regular. They are based on Perl's regexs, and it is possible to construct expressions with lookaheads that take a very, very long time to evaluate.
Blocks can be labeled and used as the targets of break. Loops can be labeled and used as the target of continue.
Arrays are not sparse. Setting the 1000th element of an otherwise empty array should fill it with undefined. (depends on implementation)
if (new Boolean(false)) {...} will execute the {...} block
Javascript's regular expression engine's are implementation specific: e.g. it is possible to write "non-portable" regular expressions.
[updated a little in response to good comments; please see comments]
I know I'm late to the party, but I just can't believe the + operator's usefulness hasn't been mentioned beyond "convert anything to a number". Maybe that's how well hidden a feature it is?
// Quick hex to dec conversion:
+"0xFF"; // -> 255
// Get a timestamp for now, the equivalent of `new Date().getTime()`:
+new Date();
// Safer parsing than parseFloat()/parseInt()
parseInt("1,000"); // -> 1, not 1000
+"1,000"; // -> NaN, much better for testing user input
parseInt("010"); // -> 8, because of the octal literal prefix
+"010"; // -> 10, `Number()` doesn't parse octal literals
// A use case for this would be rare, but still useful in cases
// for shortening something like if (someVar === null) someVar = 0;
+null; // -> 0;
// Boolean to integer
+true; // -> 1;
+false; // -> 0;
// Other useful tidbits:
+"1e10"; // -> 10000000000
+"1e-4"; // -> 0.0001
+"-12"; // -> -12
Of course, you can do all this using Number() instead, but the + operator is so much prettier!
You can also define a numeric return value for an object by overriding the prototype's valueOf() method. Any number conversion performed on that object will not result in NaN, but the return value of the valueOf() method:
var rnd = {
"valueOf": function () { return Math.floor(Math.random()*1000); }
};
+rnd; // -> 442;
+rnd; // -> 727;
+rnd; // -> 718;
"Extension methods in JavaScript" via the prototype property.
Array.prototype.contains = function(value) {
for (var i = 0; i < this.length; i++) {
if (this[i] == value) return true;
}
return false;
}
This will add a contains method to all Array objects. You can call this method using this syntax
var stringArray = ["foo", "bar", "foobar"];
stringArray.contains("foobar");
To properly remove a property from an object, you should delete the property instead of just setting it to undefined:
var obj = { prop1: 42, prop2: 43 };
obj.prop2 = undefined;
for (var key in obj) {
...
The property prop2 will still be part of the iteration. If you want to completely get rid of prop2, you should instead do:
delete obj.prop2;
The property prop2 will no longer will make an appearance when you're iterating through the properties.
with.
It's rarely used, and frankly, rarely useful... But, in limited circumstances, it does have its uses.
For instance: object literals are quite handy for quickly setting up properties on a new object. But what if you need to change half of the properties on an existing object?
var user =
{
fname: 'Rocket',
mname: 'Aloysus',
lname: 'Squirrel',
city: 'Fresno',
state: 'California'
};
// ...
with (user)
{
mname = 'J';
city = 'Frostbite Falls';
state = 'Minnesota';
}
Alan Storm points out that this can be somewhat dangerous: if the object used as context doesn't have one of the properties being assigned to, it will be resolved in the outer scope, possibly creating or overwriting a global variable. This is especially dangerous if you're used to writing code to work with objects where properties with default or empty values are left undefined:
var user =
{
fname: "John",
// mname definition skipped - no middle name
lname: "Doe"
};
with (user)
{
mname = "Q"; // creates / modifies global variable "mname"
}
Therefore, it is probably a good idea to avoid the use of the with statement for such assignment.
See also: Are there legitimate uses for JavaScript’s “with” statement?
Methods (or functions) can be called on object that are not of the type they were designed to work with. This is great to call native (fast) methods on custom objects.
var listNodes = document.getElementsByTagName('a');
listNodes.sort(function(a, b){ ... });
This code crashes because listNodes is not an Array
Array.prototype.sort.apply(listNodes, [function(a, b){ ... }]);
This code works because listNodes defines enough array-like properties (length, [] operator) to be used by sort().
Prototypal inheritance (popularized by Douglas Crockford) completely revolutionizes the way you think about loads of things in Javascript.
Object.beget = (function(Function){
return function(Object){
Function.prototype = Object;
return new Function;
}
})(function(){});
It's a killer! Pity how almost no one uses it.
It allows you to "beget" new instances of any object, extend them, while maintaining a (live) prototypical inheritance link to their other properties. Example:
var A = {
foo : 'greetings'
};
var B = Object.beget(A);
alert(B.foo); // 'greetings'
// changes and additionns to A are reflected in B
A.foo = 'hello';
alert(B.foo); // 'hello'
A.bar = 'world';
alert(B.bar); // 'world'
// ...but not the other way around
B.foo = 'wazzap';
alert(A.foo); // 'hello'
B.bar = 'universe';
alert(A.bar); // 'world'
Some would call this a matter of taste, but:
aWizz = wizz || "default";
// same as: if (wizz) { aWizz = wizz; } else { aWizz = "default"; }
The trinary operator can be chained to act like Scheme's (cond ...):
(cond (predicate (action ...))
(predicate2 (action2 ...))
(#t default ))
can be written as...
predicate ? action( ... ) :
predicate2 ? action2( ... ) :
default;
This is very "functional", as it branches your code without side effects. So instead of:
if (predicate) {
foo = "one";
} else if (predicate2) {
foo = "two";
} else {
foo = "default";
}
You can write:
foo = predicate ? "one" :
predicate2 ? "two" :
"default";
Works nice with recursion, too :)
Numbers are also objects. So you can do cool stuff like:
// convert to base 2
(5).toString(2) // returns "101"
// provide built in iteration
Number.prototype.times = function(funct){
if(typeof funct === 'function') {
for(var i = 0;i < Math.floor(this);i++) {
funct(i);
}
}
return this;
}
(5).times(function(i){
string += i+" ";
});
// string now equals "0 1 2 3 4 "
var x = 1000;
x.times(function(i){
document.body.innerHTML += '<p>paragraph #'+i+'</p>';
});
// adds 1000 parapraphs to the document
How about closures in JavaScript (similar to anonymous methods in C# v2.0+). You can create a function that creates a function or "expression".
Example of closures:
//Takes a function that filters numbers and calls the function on
//it to build up a list of numbers that satisfy the function.
function filter(filterFunction, numbers)
{
var filteredNumbers = [];
for (var index = 0; index < numbers.length; index++)
{
if (filterFunction(numbers[index]) == true)
{
filteredNumbers.push(numbers[index]);
}
}
return filteredNumbers;
}
//Creates a function (closure) that will remember the value "lowerBound"
//that gets passed in and keep a copy of it.
function buildGreaterThanFunction(lowerBound)
{
return function (numberToCheck) {
return (numberToCheck > lowerBound) ? true : false;
};
}
var numbers = [1, 15, 20, 4, 11, 9, 77, 102, 6];
var greaterThan7 = buildGreaterThanFunction(7);
var greaterThan15 = buildGreaterThanFunction(15);
numbers = filter(greaterThan7, numbers);
alert('Greater Than 7: ' + numbers);
numbers = filter(greaterThan15, numbers);
alert('Greater Than 15: ' + numbers);
You can also extend (inherit) classes and override properties/methods using the prototype chain spoon16 alluded to.
In the following example we create a class Pet and define some properties. We also override the .toString() method inherited from Object.
After this we create a Dog class which extends Pet and overrides the .toString() method again changing it's behavior (polymorphism). In addition we add some other properties to the child class.
After this we check the inheritance chain to show off that Dog is still of type Dog, of type Pet, and of type Object.
// Defines a Pet class constructor
function Pet(name)
{
this.getName = function() { return name; };
this.setName = function(newName) { name = newName; };
}
// Adds the Pet.toString() function for all Pet objects
Pet.prototype.toString = function()
{
return 'This pets name is: ' + this.getName();
};
// end of class Pet
// Define Dog class constructor (Dog : Pet)
function Dog(name, breed)
{
// think Dog : base(name)
Pet.call(this, name);
this.getBreed = function() { return breed; };
}
// this makes Dog.prototype inherit from Pet.prototype
Dog.prototype = new Pet();
// Currently Pet.prototype.constructor
// points to Pet. We want our Dog instances'
// constructor to point to Dog.
Dog.prototype.constructor = Dog;
// Now we override Pet.prototype.toString
Dog.prototype.toString = function()
{
return 'This dogs name is: ' + this.getName() +
', and its breed is: ' + this.getBreed();
};
// end of class Dog
var parrotty = new Pet('Parrotty the Parrot');
var dog = new Dog('Buddy', 'Great Dane');
// test the new toString()
alert(parrotty);
alert(dog);
// Testing instanceof (similar to the `is` operator)
alert('Is dog instance of Dog? ' + (dog instanceof Dog)); //true
alert('Is dog instance of Pet? ' + (dog instanceof Pet)); //true
alert('Is dog instance of Object? ' + (dog instanceof Object)); //true
Both answers to this question were codes modified from a great MSDN article by Ray Djajadinata.
You may catch exceptions depending on their type. Quoted from MDC:
try {
myroutine(); // may throw three exceptions
} catch (e if e instanceof TypeError) {
// statements to handle TypeError exceptions
} catch (e if e instanceof RangeError) {
// statements to handle RangeError exceptions
} catch (e if e instanceof EvalError) {
// statements to handle EvalError exceptions
} catch (e) {
// statements to handle any unspecified exceptions
logMyErrors(e); // pass exception object to error handler
}
NOTE: Conditional catch clauses are a Netscape (and hence Mozilla/Firefox) extension that is not part of the ECMAScript specification and hence cannot be relied upon except on particular browsers.
Off the top of my head...
Functions
arguments.callee refers to the function that hosts the "arguments" variable, so it can be used to recurse anonymous functions:
var recurse = function() {
if (condition) arguments.callee(); //calls recurse() again
}
That's useful if you want to do something like this:
//do something to all array items within an array recursively
myArray.forEach(function(item) {
if (item instanceof Array) item.forEach(arguments.callee)
else {/*...*/}
})
Objects
An interesting thing about object members: they can have any string as their names:
//these are normal object members
var obj = {
a : function() {},
b : function() {}
}
//but we can do this too
var rules = {
".layout .widget" : function(element) {},
"a[href]" : function(element) {}
}
/*
this snippet searches the page for elements that
match the CSS selectors and applies the respective function to them:
*/
for (var item in rules) {
var elements = document.querySelectorAll(rules[item]);
for (var e, i = 0; e = elements[i++];) rules[item](e);
}
Strings
String.split can take regular expressions as parameters:
"hello world with spaces".split(/\s+/g);
//returns an array: ["hello", "world", "with", "spaces"]
String.replace can take a regular expression as a search parameter and a function as a replacement parameter:
var i = 1;
"foo bar baz ".replace(/\s+/g, function() {return i++});
//returns "foo1bar2baz3"
You can use objects instead of switches most of the time.
function getInnerText(o){
return o === null? null : {
string: o,
array: o.map(getInnerText).join(""),
object:getInnerText(o["childNodes"])
}[typeis(o)];
}
Update: if you're concerned about the cases evaluating in advance being inefficient (why are you worried about efficiency this early on in the design of the program??) then you can do something like this:
function getInnerText(o){
return o === null? null : {
string: function() { return o;},
array: function() { return o.map(getInnerText).join(""); },
object: function () { return getInnerText(o["childNodes"]; ) }
}[typeis(o)]();
}
This is more onerous to type (or read) than either a switch or an object, but it preserves the benefits of using an object instead of a switch, detailed in the comments section below. This style also makes it more straightforward to spin this out into a proper "class" once it grows up enough.
update2: with proposed syntax extensions for ES.next, this becomes
let getInnerText = o -> ({
string: o -> o,
array: o -> o.map(getInnerText).join(""),
object: o -> getInnerText(o["childNodes"])
}[ typeis o ] || (->null) )(o);
Be sure to use the hasOwnProperty method when iterating through an object's properties:
for (p in anObject) {
if (anObject.hasOwnProperty(p)) {
//Do stuff with p here
}
}
This is done so that you will only access the direct properties of anObject, and not use the properties that are down the prototype chain.
Private variables with a Public Interface
It uses a neat little trick with a self-calling function definition.
Everything inside the object which is returned is available in the public interface, while everything else is private.
var test = function () {
//private members
var x = 1;
var y = function () {
return x * 2;
};
//public interface
return {
setx : function (newx) {
x = newx;
},
gety : function () {
return y();
}
}
}();
assert(undefined == test.x);
assert(undefined == test.y);
assert(2 == test.gety());
test.setx(5);
assert(10 == test.gety());