Javascript function scoping and hoisting

Question

I just read a great article about JavaScript Scoping and Hoisting by Ben Cherry in which he gives the following example:

var a = 1;

function b() {
    a =          


        

Answer 1

What you have to remember is that it parses the whole function and resolves all the variables declarations before executing it. So....

function a() {} 

really becomes

var a = function () {}

var a forces it into a local scope, and variable scope is through the entire function, so the global a variable is still 1 because you have declared a into a local scope by making it a function.