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We are using custom datetime picker which till now had to return both date and time. But now the conditions have changed and sometimes I need to return only date so I decided to add an optional parameter. Now the script is this :

var date_format = "dd/mm/yyyy HH:MM:ss";

function viewCalendar(parent, destField, dateOnly) {
    if (typeof dateOnly !== "undefined") {
        date_format = "dd/mm/yyyy";
    }
    //more code...

But even though it seems to work (I made only few tries) I don't like this very much, but maybe it's because I'm not used to the way of JavaScript. If it wasn't because of some sample code I would do something like :

var date_format = "dd/mm/yyyy HH:MM:ss";
var dateOnly = true;

function viewCalendar(parent, destField, dateOnly) {
    if (typeof dateOnly != true) {
        date_format = "dd/mm/yyyy";
    }

But the few examples I saw about using optinal parameters in JS I haven't seen something like this. What is the proper way to do this kind of thing i JavaScript?

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3 Answers 3

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You have several choices, you have already discovered typeof. If the data is not going to be falsy unless skipped, you can use a logical OR ||, the ternary conditional operator a?b:c or an if with a logical NOT to check whether to set it or not.
You also have the choice of comparing against undefined or void 0, both of which will still work even if the parameter is expected to be falsy, with the exception of passing undefined itself as the argument.

function foo(op0, op1, op2, op3, op4, op5, op6) {
    // if with logical NOT
    if (!op0) op0 = 'default0';
    // logical OR
    op1 || (op1 = 'default1');
    op2 = op2 || 'default2';
    // ternary
    op3 = op3 ? op3 : 'default3';
    // compare, below this line with falsy args too (except explicit `undefined`)
    if (op4 === undefined) op4 = 'default4';
    if (op5 === void 0) op5 = 'default5';
    // compare combined with logical OR
    (op6 !== undefined) || (op6 = 'default6');

    // log parameters to see what we have now
    console.log(op0, op1, op2, op3, op4, op5, op6)
}
foo(); // default0 default1 default2 default3 default4 default5 default6

Please note that in older browsers, undefined was writeable in the global scope and that in all browsers, if you're not in the global scope, undefined can be vard or set as a parameter and so have a value which is not undefined.

If you're not okay with that, choose using the void operator over undefined.
If you understand that it can happen and don't have to worry about someone shadowing undefined, feel free to use it.
If you ever see someone do it, ask them if they could var Array for you too, or something similar, so they realise they have been silly.

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5 Comments

I understand, but what I'm doubting most is do I have to define the optional argument with boolean value or just check against undefined. I prefer to define it, but from the answers here it seems that it's nto necessary in any means. Do I get this right?
JavaScript doesn't enforce that all named parameters must be given passed as arguments, but any named parameter will shadow variables of the same name in parent scopes so if they're not passed, it will be undefined even if they were defined in an ancestor scope.
What I'm trying to say is inside your second code block, in viewCalendar, dateOnly will be undefined if it has not been passed, even though it is vard above. It will only be true if true was passed to the function.
Yeah, thanks, very usefull. Guess I'll stick to typeof then.
@Leron so you're aware, if you use typeof like this and then debug your code with JSLint, you will get Unexpected 'typeof'. Use '===' to compare directly with undefined.
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I may go with a ternary operator here

date_format = dateOnly ? "dd/mm/yyyy" : date_format ;

It will look for truthyness of the dateOnly, and either override the format or will retain it

Also 

if (typeof dateOnly != true) {
    date_format = "dd/mm/yyyy";
}

seems wrong, it could be

if (dateOnly == true) {
    date_format = "dd/mm/yyyy";
}
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Comments

1

Another way is to use an anonymous object as a single parameter:

function viewCalendar(opts) {
    if (opts.dateOnly) {
       date_format = "dd/mm/yyyy";
    }
}

viewCalendar({parent:foo, destField:bar, dateOnly:true})

Especially useful when you have a lot of optional parameters.

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6 Comments

Hmm, haven't seen this before. Thanks for that.
@Leron: this is pretty common, in fact. Jquery works this way all the time.
@Leron I like to do this sometimes too, but you need to remember that an Object is passed ByRef (as opposed to the normal ByVal behaviour) so unless you create a new Object each time you invoke, your function may have side effects.
@PaulS.: in javascript, unlike say Basic, there's no such thing as "byVal" and "byRef".
@thg435 you can't choose between them in the function definition, true, but when you supply an Object, it is a reference, whereas if it is primitive you'll get a copy of it's value that can't effect outside the function. var i = 0;(function (i) {++i;}(i));i; will keep i === 0 but var o = {i:0};(function (o) {++o.i;}(o));o.i; will give o.i === 1.
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