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

Answer 1

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like the simplest way (for one argument, anyway):

function myFunction(Required,Optional)
{
    if (arguments.length<2) Optional = "Default";
    //Your code
}

Answer 2

Landed to this question, searching for default parameters in EcmaScript 2015, thus just mentioning...

With ES6 we can do default parameters:

function doSomething(optionalParam = "defaultValue"){
    console.log(optionalParam);//not required to check for falsy values
}

doSomething(); //"defaultValue"
doSomething("myvalue"); //"myvalue"

Answer 3

This is what I ended up with:

function WhoLikesCake(options) {
  options = options || {};
  var defaultOptions = {
    a : options.a || "Huh?",
    b : options.b || "I don't like cake."
  }
  console.log('a: ' + defaultOptions.b + ' - b: ' + defaultOptions.b);

  // Do more stuff here ...
}

Called like this:

WhoLikesCake({ b : "I do" });

Answer 4

Here is my solution. With this you can leave any parameter you want. The order of the optional parameters is not important and you can add custom validation.

function YourFunction(optionalArguments) {
            //var scope = this;

            //set the defaults
            var _value1 = 'defaultValue1';
            var _value2 = 'defaultValue2';
            var _value3 = null;
            var _value4 = false;

            //check the optional arguments if they are set to override defaults...
            if (typeof optionalArguments !== 'undefined') {

                if (typeof optionalArguments.param1 !== 'undefined')
                    _value1 = optionalArguments.param1;

                if (typeof optionalArguments.param2 !== 'undefined')
                    _value2 = optionalArguments.param2;

                if (typeof optionalArguments.param3 !== 'undefined')
                    _value3 = optionalArguments.param3;

                if (typeof optionalArguments.param4 !== 'undefined')
                    //use custom parameter validation if needed, in this case for javascript boolean
                   _value4 = (optionalArguments.param4 === true || optionalArguments.param4 === 'true');
            }

            console.log('value summary of function call:');
            console.log('value1: ' + _value1);
            console.log('value2: ' + _value2);
            console.log('value3: ' + _value3);
            console.log('value4: ' + _value4);
            console.log('');
        }


        //call your function in any way you want. You can leave parameters. Order is not important. Here some examples:
        YourFunction({
            param1: 'yourGivenValue1',
            param2: 'yourGivenValue2',
            param3: 'yourGivenValue3',
            param4: true,
        });

        //order is not important
        YourFunction({
            param4: false,
            param1: 'yourGivenValue1',
            param2: 'yourGivenValue2',
        });

        //uses all default values
        YourFunction();

        //keeps value4 false, because not a valid value is given
        YourFunction({
            param4: 'not a valid bool'
        });

Answer 5

function Default(variable, new_value)
{
    if(new_value === undefined) { return (variable === undefined) ? null : variable; }
    return (variable === undefined) ? new_value : variable;
}

var a = 2, b = "hello", c = true, d;

var test = Default(a, 0),
test2 = Default(b, "Hi"),
test3 = Default(c, false),
test4 = Default(d, "Hello world");

window.alert(test + "\n" + test2 + "\n" + test3 + "\n" + test4);

http://jsfiddle.net/mq60hqrf/

Answer 6

In all cases where optionalArg is falsy you will end up with defaultValue.

function myFunc(requiredArg, optionalArg) {
    optionalArg = optionalArg || 'defaultValue';
    console.log(optionalArg);
    // Do stuff
}
myFunc(requiredArg);
myFunc(requiredArg, null);
myFunc(requiredArg, undefined);
myFunc(requiredArg, "");
myFunc(requiredArg, 0);
myFunc(requiredArg, false);

All of the above log defaultValue, because all of 6 are falsy. In case 4, 5, 6 you might not be interested to set optionalArg as defaultValue, but it sets since they are falsy.