What real purpose does $.noop() serve in jQuery 1.4?

Question

Pouring over the release notes regarding jQuery 1.4, I came acrosss $.noop() which is:

Description: An empty function. (added in 1.4)

Answer 1

It's purely a convenience/replacement for function(){} in the context of where callbacks are required - I don't think I'll be using it anytime soon.

I bet the jQuery team had quite a laugh when they dropped it in though, also serves a comedic purpose.

Answer 2

Real World Example (well almost):

jQuery.fn.myAwesomeAjax = function(url, complete) {
  return jQuery.ajax(url || this.url)
    .complete(complete || jQuery.noop);
};

Use it instead of function (){}

Answer 3

I use a couple of plugins which require callbacks, but for some parts I don't actually want to use a certain callback. So, I put in function() {}.

noop is defined in the jQuery source as

noop: function() {}

so it will fit anywhere you'd use a blank function, such as the above example.