Hidden Features of JavaScript? [closed]

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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'