Javascript Functions Section (Mozilla Developer)

Along with objects, functions are the core component in understanding JavaScript. The most basic function couldn’t be much simpler:

<span class="token keyword">function</span> <span class="token function">add</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span>x<span class="token punctuation">,</span> y<span class="token punctuation">)</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span>
  <span class="token keyword">var</span> total <span class="token operator">=</span> x <span class="token operator">+</span> y<span class="token punctuation">;</span>
  <span class="token keyword">return</span> total<span class="token punctuation">;</span>
<span class="token punctuation">}</span>

This demonstrates a basic function. A JavaScript function can take 0 or more named parameters. The function body can contain as many statements as you like and can declare its own variables which are local to that function. The return statement can be used to return a value at any time, terminating the function. If no return statement is used (or an empty return with no value), JavaScript returns undefined.

The named parameters turn out to be more like guidelines than anything else. You can call a function without passing the parameters it expects, in which case they will be set to undefined.

<span class="token function">add</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span> <span class="token comment">// NaN</span>
<span class="token comment">// You can't perform addition on undefined</span>

You can also pass in more arguments than the function is expecting:

<span class="token function">add</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token number">2</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">3</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">4</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span> <span class="token comment">// 5</span>
<span class="token comment">// added the first two; 4 was ignored</span>

That may seem a little silly, but functions have access to an additional variable inside their body called arguments, which is an array-like object holding all of the values passed to the function. Let’s re-write the add function to take as many values as we want:

<span class="token keyword">function</span> <span class="token function">add</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span>
  <span class="token keyword">var</span> sum <span class="token operator">=</span> <span class="token number">0</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span>
  <span class="token keyword">for</span> <span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token keyword">var</span> i <span class="token operator">=</span> <span class="token number">0</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> j <span class="token operator">=</span> arguments<span class="token punctuation">.</span>length<span class="token punctuation">;</span> i <span class="token operator"><</span> j<span class="token punctuation">;</span> i<span class="token operator">++</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span>
    sum <span class="token operator">+=</span> arguments<span class="token punctuation">[</span>i<span class="token punctuation">]</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span>
  <span class="token punctuation">}</span>
  <span class="token keyword">return</span> sum<span class="token punctuation">;</span>
<span class="token punctuation">}</span>

<span class="token function">add</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token number">2</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">3</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">4</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">5</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span> <span class="token comment">// 14</span>

That’s really not any more useful than writing 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 though. Let’s create an averaging function:

<span class="token keyword">function</span> <span class="token function">avg</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span>
  <span class="token keyword">var</span> sum <span class="token operator">=</span> <span class="token number">0</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span>
  <span class="token keyword">for</span> <span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token keyword">var</span> i <span class="token operator">=</span> <span class="token number">0</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> j <span class="token operator">=</span> arguments<span class="token punctuation">.</span>length<span class="token punctuation">;</span> i <span class="token operator"><</span> j<span class="token punctuation">;</span> i<span class="token operator">++</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span>
    sum <span class="token operator">+=</span> arguments<span class="token punctuation">[</span>i<span class="token punctuation">]</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span>
  <span class="token punctuation">}</span>
  <span class="token keyword">return</span> sum <span class="token operator">/</span> arguments<span class="token punctuation">.</span>length<span class="token punctuation">;</span>
<span class="token punctuation">}</span>

<span class="token function">avg</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token number">2</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">3</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">4</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">5</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span> <span class="token comment">// 3.5</span>

This is pretty useful, but it does seem a little verbose. To reduce this code a bit more we can look at substituting the use of the arguments array through Rest parameter syntax. In this way, we can pass in any number of arguments into the function while keeping our code minimal. The rest parameter operator is used in function parameter lists with the format: …variable and it will include within that variable the entire list of uncaptured arguments that the function was called with. We will also replace the for loop with a for…of loop to return the values within our variable.

<span class="token keyword">function</span> <span class="token function">avg</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token operator">...</span>args<span class="token punctuation">)</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span>
  <span class="token keyword">var</span> sum <span class="token operator">=</span> <span class="token number">0</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span>
  <span class="token keyword">for</span> <span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token keyword">let</span> value <span class="token keyword">of</span> args<span class="token punctuation">)</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span>
    sum <span class="token operator">+=</span> value<span class="token punctuation">;</span>
  <span class="token punctuation">}</span>
  <span class="token keyword">return</span> sum <span class="token operator">/</span> args<span class="token punctuation">.</span>length<span class="token punctuation">;</span>
<span class="token punctuation">}</span>

<span class="token function">avg</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token number">2</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">3</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">4</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">5</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span> <span class="token comment">// 3.5</span>

In the above code, the variable args holds all the values that were passed into the function.

It is important to note that wherever the rest parameter operator is placed in a function declaration it will store all arguments after its declaration, but not before. i.e. functionavg(firstValue, …args) will store the first value passed into the function in the firstValuevariable and the remaining arguments in args. That’s another useful language feature but it does lead us to a new problem. The avg() function takes a comma-separated list of arguments — but what if you want to find the average of an array? You could just rewrite the function as follows:

But it would be nice to be able to reuse the function that we’ve already created. Luckily, JavaScript lets you call a function with an arbitrary array of arguments, using the apply()method of any function object.

avg<span class="token punctuation">.</span><span class="token function">apply</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token keyword">null</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token punctuation">[</span><span class="token number">2</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">3</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">4</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token number">5</span><span class="token punctuation">]</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span> <span class="token comment">// 3.5</span>