Is there a better way to do optional function parameters in JavaScript? [duplicate]

Answer 1

Folks -

After looking at these and other solutions, I tried a number of them out using a snippet of code originally from W3Schools as a base. You can find what works in the following. Each of the items commented out work as well and are that way to allow you to experiment simply by removing individual comments. To be clear, it is the "eyecolor" parameter that is not being defined.

function person(firstname, lastname, age, eyecolor)
{
this.firstname = firstname;
this.lastname = lastname;
this.age = age;
this.eyecolor = eyecolor;
// if(null==eyecolor)
//   this.eyecolor = "unknown1";
//if(typeof(eyecolor)==='undefined') 
//   this.eyecolor = "unknown2";
// if(!eyecolor)
//   this.eyecolor = "unknown3";
this.eyecolor = this.eyecolor || "unknown4";
}

var myFather = new person("John", "Doe", 60);
var myMother = new person("Sally", "Rally", 48, "green");

var elem = document.getElementById("demo");
elem.innerHTML = "My father " +
              myFather.firstname + " " +
              myFather.lastname + " is " +
              myFather.age + " with " +
              myFather.eyecolor + " eyes.<br/>" +
              "My mother " +
              myMother.firstname + " " +
              myMother.lastname + " is " +
              myMother.age + " with " +
              myMother.eyecolor + " eyes."; 

Answer 2

function foo(requiredArg){
  if(arguments.length>1) var optionalArg = arguments[1];
}

Answer 3

Those ones are shorter than the typeof operator version.

function foo(a, b) {
    a !== undefined || (a = 'defaultA');
    if(b === undefined) b = 'defaultB';
    ...
}

Answer 4

Your logic fails if optionalArg is passed, but evaluates as false - try this as an alternative

if (typeof optionalArg === 'undefined') { optionalArg = 'default'; }

Or an alternative idiom:

optionalArg = (typeof optionalArg === 'undefined') ? 'default' : optionalArg;

Use whichever idiom communicates the intent best to you!

Answer 5

I am used to seeing a few basic variations on handling optional variables. Sometimes, the relaxed versions are useful.

function foo(a, b, c) {
  a = a || "default";   // Matches 0, "", null, undefined, NaN, false.
  a || (a = "default"); // Matches 0, "", null, undefined, NaN, false.

  if (b == null) { b = "default"; } // Matches null, undefined.

  if (typeof c === "undefined") { c = "default"; } // Matches undefined.
}

The falsy default used with variable a is, for example, used extensively in Backbone.js.

Answer 6

During a project I noticed I was repeating myself too much with the optional parameters and settings, so I made a class that handles the type checking and assigns a default value which results in neat and readable code. See example and let me know if this works for you.

var myCar           = new Car('VW', {gearbox:'automatic', options:['radio', 'airbags 2x']});
var myOtherCar      = new Car('Toyota');

function Car(brand, settings) {
    this.brand      = brand;

    // readable and adjustable code
    settings        = DefaultValue.object(settings, {});
    this.wheels     = DefaultValue.number(settings.wheels, 4);
    this.hasBreaks  = DefaultValue.bool(settings.hasBreaks, true);
    this.gearbox    = DefaultValue.string(settings.gearbox, 'manual');
    this.options    = DefaultValue.array(settings.options, []);

    // instead of doing this the hard way
    settings        = settings || {};
    this.wheels     = (!isNaN(settings.wheels)) ? settings.wheels : 4;
    this.hasBreaks  = (typeof settings.hasBreaks !== 'undefined') ? (settings.hasBreaks === true) : true;
    this.gearbox    = (typeof settings.gearbox === 'string') ? settings.gearbox : 'manual';
    this.options    = (typeof settings.options !== 'undefined' && Array.isArray(settings.options)) ? settings.options : [];
}

Using this class:

(function(ns) {

    var DefaultValue = {

        object: function(input, defaultValue) {
            if (typeof defaultValue !== 'object') throw new Error('invalid defaultValue type');
            return (typeof input !== 'undefined') ? input : defaultValue;
        },

        bool: function(input, defaultValue) {
            if (typeof defaultValue !== 'boolean') throw new Error('invalid defaultValue type');
            return (typeof input !== 'undefined') ? (input === true) : defaultValue;
        },

        number: function(input, defaultValue) {
            if (isNaN(defaultValue)) throw new Error('invalid defaultValue type');
            return (typeof input !== 'undefined' && !isNaN(input)) ? parseFloat(input) : defaultValue;
        },

        // wrap the input in an array if it is not undefined and not an array, for your convenience
        array: function(input, defaultValue) {
            if (typeof defaultValue === 'undefined') throw new Error('invalid defaultValue type');
            return (typeof input !== 'undefined') ? (Array.isArray(input) ? input : [input]) : defaultValue;
        },

        string: function(input, defaultValue) {
            if (typeof defaultValue !== 'string') throw new Error('invalid defaultValue type');
            return (typeof input === 'string') ? input : defaultValue;
        },

    };

    ns.DefaultValue = DefaultValue;

}(this));