Functions

Functions in JavaScript are first class objects, that means that they can be passed around like any other value. One common use of this feature is to pass ananonymous function as a callback to another, possibly asynchronous function.

The function declaration

function foo() {}

The above function gets hoisted before the execution of the program starts; thus, it is available everywhere in the scope it was defined in, even if called before the actual definition in the source.

foo(); // Works because foo was created before this code runs
function foo() {}

The function expression

var foo = function() {};

This example assigns the unnamed and anonymous function to the variable foo.

foo; // 'undefined'
foo(); // this raises a TypeError
var foo = function() {};

Due to the fact that var is a declaration, that hoists the variable name foo before the actual execution of the code starts, foo is already defined when the script gets executed.

But since assignments only happens at runtime, the value of foo will default to undefined before the corresponding code is executed.

Named function expression

Another special case is the assignment of named functions.

var foo = function bar() {
bar(); // Works
}
bar(); // ReferenceError

Here bar is not available in the outer scope, since the function only gets assigned to foo; however, inside of bar it is available. This is due to how name resolution in JavaScript works, the name of the function is always made available in the local scope of the function itself.

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Intro	Objects	The prototype
hasOwnProperty	Functions	How this works
Closures and references	The arguments object	Scopes and namespaces
Constructors	Equality and comparisons	Arrays
The Array constructor	The for in loop	The typeof operator
The instanceof operator	Type casting	undefined and null
Reasons against eval	setTimeout and setInterval	Automatic semicolon insertion