What is the difference between
settings = {
edit: function (key, value) {
return anotherFunction(key, value) {
return value * 2;
};
}
};
and
settings = {
edit: function edit(key, value) {
return anotherFunction(key, value) {
return value * 2;
};
}
};
?
There's no difference when executing.
However, in the second case (named function), you can call the function recursively easier because it has a name.
For example, with a named function you can do:
fact: function factorial(n) {
if(n == 0) return 1;
return n * factorial(n-1); //You can do this with a named function easily
}
Without a name, this would be tricky.
Cheers
this.fact(). You can easily call a function without naming it: var x = function() { x() }.
var x = function() { x() }callback(function f(n){ f(...); }); it's much easier with a named function (the other option(s) would be harder)f = function () { return f(...); }; callback(f);The essential difference is better debugging. In your developer tools, the named function in your second example will appear as edit in a backtrace; your first example will appear as anonymous. This can be extremely confusing when you're 10 function deep, and they are all called anonymous.
There are three reasons to give a function an inherent name. The first is that everyone does it. It's what everyone is used to.
function factorial(n) {
var accum = 1, i;
for (i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
accum *= i;
}
return accum;
}
The second is to understand stack traces better, as @meagar wrote.
The third is to let you write call functions recursively.
var factorial = function(n) {
var a = 1;
return (function factRecursive(k, a) {
if (k >= 2) {return factRecursive(k - 1, k * a)}
else {return a;}
})(n, a);
}
