Develop Reference

Check whether function has run fully before, based on variable

I have a function which "types" out a header title as though it is being typed on the screen.
The typer only starts typing once a particular section of my site is "active" or is seen on the screen.
At present, it takes the outputID aka the area where this text will be typed into. There are two instances of this function being run, each with different outputIDs - I only want the function to run once per outputID.
This is how the function is initially called.
<h2 id="typer-get-in-touch" class="typer" data-text="Get in Toche^^^^^ Touch"></h2>
if(anchorLink == 'contact'){
var outputID = $("#typer-get-in-touch");
textTyping(outputID);
}else if(anchorLink == 'expertise'){
var outputID = $("#typer-expertise");
textTyping(outputID);
}
This is the textTyping function
function textTyping(outputID){
$(outputID).show();
var textString = $(outputID).data("text");
var textArray = textString.split("");
var texttypeing = setInterval(
function() {
typeOutText(outputID,textArray);
}, 170);
function typeOutText(outputID,textArray) {
if (textArray[0] == "^"){
outputID.text(function(index, text){
return text.replace(/(\s+)?.$/, '');
});
textArray.shift();
}else {
if (textArray.length > 0) {
outputID.append(textArray.shift());
} else {
clearTimeout(texttypeing);
}
}
}
}
My issue at present is that the function runs multiple types, and continues to type each time the original anchorLink trigger is achieved. The result is that is writes the title many times e.g:
Get In TouchGet In TouchGet In Touch
Each time the section is navigated to, the typing starts again.
How can I run this function only ONCE per outputID? So once the outputID has been used, the function can no longer run for that data?
JSFiddle of non-working example: https://jsfiddle.net/qLez8zeq/
JSFiddle of mplungjan's solution: https://jsfiddle.net/qLez8zeq/1/

Change
function textTyping(outputID){
$(outputID).show();
var textString = $(outputID).data("text");
to
function textTyping(outputID){
var textString = $(outputID).data("text");
if (textString=="") return;
$(outputID).data("text","");
$(outputID).show();
FIDDLE

What you need to do is to bind the event handler for each ID and then unbind it after it's been triggered the first time. Since you're already using jQuery, you can use the "one" method to do exactly this for each outputID:
$( "#typer-get-in-touch" ).one( "click", function() {
textTyping(outputID);
});

I suppose you could store your processed outputIds into an array and then check if the given outputId is present in the array before starting?
Define your array, check for the existence, if not found, do code example:
var processedIds = [];
function textTyping(outputID) {
var foundItem = false;
for (var i = 0; i < processedIds.length; i++)
{
if (processedIds[i] == outputID) {
foundItem = true;
break;
}
}
if (!foundItem) {
//the rest of your code goes here
}
}

You can add some check at the beginning of your function:
var called = {};
function textTyping(outputID) {
if (called[outputID]) {
return;
}
called[outputID] = true;
// your code
}

Javascript not executing functions using = operator

I am new to javascript, so this is a basic question. I created a simple mp3 player that loads the first song, then plays the next couple songs in an array. I modified this code that I found on stack, and it works:
audioPlayer.onended = function() {
if(currentSong < nextSong.length-1) {
audioPlayer.src = nextSong[++currentSong];
document.getElementById('songTitle').innerHTML
= songTitle[currentSong];
}
}
However, if I try to put the implementation in its own function and call the function that way it doesn't work:
audioPlayer.onended = nextSong();
function nextSong() {
if(currentSong < nextSong.length-1) {
audioPlayer.src = nextSong[++currentSong];
document.getElementById('songTitle').innerHTML
= songTitle[currentSong];
}
}
I don't want to rewrite the code every time I want to use the function nextSong(). I have tried calling the nextSong() function from a button inside the tag, for example this post, but cannot get the function to call. Thanks for your help.

This is a common confusion. What your second example is actually doing is running the nextSong function and assigning its return value to onended.
Instead, you could change your code to:
function nextSong() {
if(currentSong < nextSong.length-1) {
audioPlayer.src = nextSong[++currentSong];
document.getElementById('songTitle').innerHTML
= songTitle[currentSong];
}
}
// Assign the function (nextSong) not its return value (nextSong())
audioPlayer.onended = nextSong;

Int from for loop not working in function - JS

I am pretty new to Javascript and have noticed this odd issue come up.
var dispatchMouseEvent = function(target, var_args) {
var e = document.createEvent("MouseEvents");
e.initEvent.apply(e, Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1));
target.dispatchEvent(e);
};
var Level1Cats = document.getElementsByClassName("p-pstctgry-lnk-ctgry "); //GETTING LEVEL 1 CATS
var Level1CatsLen = Level1Cats.length; //GETTING LEVEL 1 CAT LEN
for (i = 0; i <= Level1CatsLen-1; i++) {
var ID1 = Level1Cats[i].id;
var temp1 = Level1Cats[i].innerHTML;
temp1.replace(/&/gi, "&").replace(/<[^>]*>/gi, "");
function GoToLevel2(callback) { //GO TO NEXT LEVEL!
dispatchMouseEvent(Level1Cats[i], "mouseover", true, true);
dispatchMouseEvent(Level1Cats[i], "click", true, true);
}
function GetLevel2() { //GET NEXT LEVEL
var Level2Cats = document.getElementsByClassName("p-pstctgry-lnk-ctgry");
return Level2Cats.length;
}
setTimeout(function() { //RUN IT WITH TIMING
GoToLevel2();
}, 100);
var Level2CatsLen = GetLevel2();
}
When the code is executed it gives me an error (Cannot read property 'dispatchEvent' of undefined)
I know this is because the i in the function does not seem to work. If I simply replace it with an int value of 1 it will execute and click cat 1, 16 times, as expected..
I would have thought this should work, any ideas how I can work around it?

Inside the loop, a closure GoToLevel2 is created, closing over the variable i, when i is 1. Then the loop runs through, i is incremented to 2, and the loop is terminated.
Then your setTimeout fires after 100ms, and invokes your closure. It still remembers that there was once a variable i, but it now contains 2. Level1Cats[2] is undefined, and you get an error.
The standard solution is to enclose the contents of the loop into another self-evaluating function that will not close over i:
for (i = 0; i <= Level1CatsLen-1; i++) {
(function(i) {
// ...
})(i);
}
(Note also that setTimeout(function() { GoToLevel2(); }, 200) is identical to, but less efficient than setTimeout(GoToLevel2, 200).)

Get string to array with multiple .each function

I have two elements and will get strings inside. (and i use .each` function)
The problem is that the second array (after got string by .each), is replace the first one.
Sorry, if you don't understand, but try to look below...
$('div').each(function () {
var data = [];
$('li', this).each(function () {
data.push($(this).text());
});
var data_length = data.length;
$(this).children("code").html(data + "");
$("code").click(function () {
data.move(data_length - 1, 0);
$(this).html(data + "");
});
});
Array.prototype.move = function (old_index, new_index) {
if (new_index >= this.length) {
var k = new_index - this.length;
while ((k--) + 1) {
this.push(undefined);
}
}
this.splice(new_index, 0, this.splice(old_index, 1)[0]);
return this; // for testing purposes
};
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/kdpN7/
What did I do wrong?

For the same reason you do $(this).children('code') you should also bind your click event with a scope.
The problem is, you're iterating over 2 divs (your each) which means you're binding $('code') twice. The first time code is bound to click, it binds with the first data array (the 1's) and then it is bound a second time with (the 2's). So it IS first doing your click code for the 1s and then immediately running it for the 2s, thus overwriting. Change to $(this).find("code") (or children) and it works as expected.
http://jsfiddle.net/kdpN7/1/

On this line:
$("code").click(function () { ...
This is telling to update all code with that information. You need to change it so it's specific to each div:
$(this).find("code").click(function () { ...
Updated fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/kdpN7/2/

Cannot access array elements properly within setTimeout

Here what I'm trying to do.
I'm having an array like the following
var my_array = ['1', '2', '3' ... ,'1000000000000000'];
What I want to do is create a bunch of HTML elements for every element of that array, and since the array can contain a huge number of elements I attempted to do the following so the browser won't freeze.
for(var i in my_array)
{
if(my_array.hasOwnProperty(i))
{
setTimeout(function(){
do_something_with_data(my_array[i]);
});
}
}
What happens though is that the my_array[i] within the setTimeout doesn't have the value it should.
To be more accurate, when I try to console.log(my_array[i]) what I get is something like this:
"getUnique" function (){
var u = {}, a = [];
for(var i = 0, l = this.length; i < l; ++i){
if(u.hasOwnProperty(this[i])) {
continue;
}
a.push(this[i]);
u[this[i]] = 1;
}
return a;
}
getUnique is a function I've added to the Array prototype just like this:
Array.prototype.getUnique = function(){
var u = {}, a = [];
for(var i = 0, l = this.length; i < l; ++i){
if(u.hasOwnProperty(this[i])) {
continue;
}
a.push(this[i]);
u[this[i]] = 1;
}
return a;
};
Can please somebody help me with this issue?

the setTimeout is executed after the loop is done, and i is the last key or some garbage value at that point. You can capture the i like so:
for (var i in my_array) {
if (my_array.hasOwnProperty(i)) {
(function(capturedI) {
setTimeout(function() {
do_something_with_data(my_array[capturedI]);
});
})(i);
}
}
You should also not use for..in loops for arrays because it's an order of magnitude slower (especially so with the .hasOwnProperty check) than a for loop and the iteration order is not defined
If you have jQuery or willing to add some extra code for older browsers, you can do:
my_array.forEach( function( item ) {
setTimeout( function() {
do_something_with_data( item );
}, 1000);
});
With jQuery:
$.each( my_array, function( index, item ) {
setTimeout( function() {
do_something_with_data( item );
}, 1000);
});
See docs for [].forEach

The problem is that the functions you're creating have a reference to the i variable, not a copy of its value, and so when they run they see i as it is at that point in time (past the end of the array, presumably). (More: Closures are not complicated)
I'd recommend a completely different approach (below), but first, let's look at how to make your existing approach work.
To do what you were trying to do, with the for loop, you have to have the functions close over something that won't change. The usual way to do that is to use a factory function that creates the timeout functions such that they close over the argument to the factory. Or actually, you can pass in the array element's value rather than the index variable.
for(var i in my_array)
{
if(my_array.hasOwnProperty(i))
{
setTimeout(makeFunction(my_array[i]));
}
}
function makeFunction(entry) {
return function(){
do_something_with_data(entry);
};
}
But, I would probably restructure the code so you're not creating masses and masses of function objects unnecessarily. Instead, use one function, and have it close over an index that it increments:
// Assumes `my_array` exists at this point, and that it
// has at least one entry
var i = 0;
setTimeout(tick, 0);
function tick() {
// Process this entry
if (my_array.hasOwnProperty(i)) {
do_something_with_data(my_array[i]);
}
// Move to next
++i;
// If there are any left, schedule the next tick
if (i < my_array.length) {
setTimeout(tick, 0);
}
}

Its just a guess. Try it like:
for(var i in my_array)
{
if(my_array.hasOwnProperty(i))
setTimeout("do_something_with_data('"+my_array[i]+"')", 500);
}