Functions

jQuery

Functions

Functions contain blocks of code that need to be executed repeatedly. Functions can take zero or more arguments, and can optionally return a value.

Functions can be created in a variety of ways, two of which are shown below:

1
2
3
4
5
6
                          
// Function Declaration
function foo() {
/* do something */
}
1
2
3
4
5
6
                          
// Named Function Expression
var foo = function() {
/* do something */
}

Using Functions

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
                          
// A simple function
var greet = function( person, greeting ) {
var text = greeting + ", " + person;
console.log( text );
};
greet( "Rebecca", "Hello" );
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
                          
// A function that returns a value
var greet = function( person, greeting ) {
var text = greeting + ", " + person;
return text;
};
console.log( greet( "Rebecca", "hello" ) ); // "hello, Rebecca"
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
                          
// A function that returns another function
var greet = function( person, greeting ) {
var text = greeting + ", " + person;
return function() {
console.log( text );
};
};
var greeting = greet( "Rebecca", "Hello" );
greeting();

Immediately-Invoked Function Expression (IIFE)

A common pattern in JavaScript is the immediately-invoked function expression. This pattern creates a function expression and then immediately executes the function. This pattern is extremely useful for cases where you want to avoid polluting the global namespace with code — no variables declared inside of the function are visible outside of it.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
                          
// An immediately-invoked function expression
(function() {
var foo = "Hello world";
})();
console.log( foo ); // undefined!

Functions as Arguments

In JavaScript, functions are "first-class citizens" — they can be assigned to variables or passed to other functions as arguments. Passing functions as arguments is an extremely common idiom in jQuery.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
                          
// Passing an anonymous function as an argument
var myFn = function( fn ) {
var result = fn();
console.log( result );
};
// logs "hello world"
myFn( function() {
return "hello world";
});
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
                          
// Passing a named function as an argument
var myFn = function( fn ) {
var result = fn();
console.log( result );
};
var myOtherFn = function() {
return "hello world";
};
myFn( myOtherFn ); // "hello world"