I saw this in a plugin:
var options = $.extend(defaults, options);
How does it work?
What does extend()
do?
I saw this in a plugin:
var options = $.extend(defaults, options);
How does it work?
What does extend()
do?
The documentation isn't precise in explaining how extend works, so I ran a little test:
var a = {foo: 1, bar: 1}; var b = {foo: 2, baz: 2}; var c = {foo: 3}; var r = jQuery.extend(a,b,c); console.log("A: Foo=" + a.foo + " Bar=" + a.bar + " Baz=" + a.baz); console.log("B: Foo=" + b.foo + " Bar=" + b.bar + " Baz=" + b.baz); console.log("C: Foo=" + c.foo + " Bar=" + c.bar + " Baz=" + c.baz); console.log("R: Foo=" + r.foo + " Bar=" + r.bar + " Baz=" + r.baz); console.log("A === R?: " + (a === r));
(The console.log
function is intended to work in Firebug; replace it with alert() or some other output function if you like).
The results are:
A: Foo=3 Bar=1 Baz=2 B: Foo=2 Bar=undefined Baz=2 C: Foo=3 Bar=undefined Baz=undefined R: Foo=3 Bar=1 Baz=2 A === R?: true
By this we can see that jQuery.extend():
This is useful for combining user and default option-objects together to get a complete set of options:
function foo(userOptions) { var defaultOptions = { foo: 2, bar: 2 }; var someOtherDefaultOptions = { baz: 3 }; var allOptions = jQuery.extend( defaultOptions, someOtherDefaultOptions, userOptions ); doSomething(allOptions); } foo({foo:1, baz:1});
Note that "null" is a valid value for overwriting, but "undefined" isn't. You might be able to make use of this.
var a = {foo: "a", bar: "a"}; var b = {foo: null, bar: undefined}; jQuery.extend(a,b); console.log("A: Foo=" + a.foo + " Bar=" + a.bar);
Results in:
A: Foo=null Bar=a
If you pass just one object to jQuery.extend()
, then jQuery assumes that the jQuery
object itself is the "first" parameter (ie: the one to be modified), and your object is the "second" (ie: the one to add to the first). So:
console.log( "Before: " + jQuery.foo ); jQuery.extend({foo:1}); console.log( "After: " + jQuery.foo );
Results in:
Before: undefined After: 1
From jQuery Documentation
Merge the contents of two or more objects together into the first object.
In a plugin context: If the user does not set the optional parameters for the function, then a default value will be used instead.
It merges the content of one object to another. If we pass two objects, second object properties are added to the first object / first parameter
Ex: $.extend(object1, object2);
Now object1 contains properties of object2
If we want to merge two objects, then we need to pass empty object in the first parameter
Ex: var newObject = $.extend({}, object1, object2);
Now newObject contains both properties of object1 and object2.
There's a perfect example on the jQuery Documentation : .extend() method
How does extend() work in jQuery? [Resolved]
jQuery have deep copy and light copy. The first boolean decide it, true for deep and false for light.
For example:
jQuery.extend(false, {'a' : {'a1': 1}}, {'a': {'a2': 2}})
the result will be: {'a': {'a2': 2}} because this is light copy just compare level 1.
jQuery.extend(true, {'a' : {'a1': 1}}, {'a': {'a2': 2}})
the result will be: {'a': {'a1': 1, 'a2': 2}} This is deep copy with many level of object (just like level of array)
jQuery.extend(a,b,c) with a, b, c is object or array. The flow overrite will be b->a, c ->a (b overrite a, c override a ...) this function will return a and a also change value too.
Advanced Examples:
jQuery.extend({'number_param': 1})
In case you just pass one param. jQuery will extend itself. console.log(jQuery['number_param']) will output 1.
jQuery.extend(1, {'number_param': '2'}); This example is not append jQuery itself. The first parameter must be boolean. In this case it will return {'number_param': '2'} and jQuery not get updated.
jQuery.extend(a, b, c, d ,e , f); The order merge will be . b ->a , c -> a, d -> a, e -> a, f ->a (b override a, c override a ...) . And result return will be a.
with a= {'p': 1}. jQuery.extend(a, {'p': 2},{'p': 3},{'p': 4},{'p': 5}) will return a, and a = {'p': 6}. The number parameters pass to this function is unlimited.
The purpose is to extend an existing object. For e.g. if we have a template object and we want to extend that by adding more properties or override existing properties, jquery extend can be useful.
var carObjectTemplate = { "make": "honda", "model":"city", "mileage":"20", "variant":"petrol"
};
now if we want to extend it, $.extend(true, {"color":"red"}, carObjectTemplate, {"model": 'amaze'});
it will give us ouput, extending carObjectTemplate and adding
{"color":"red"} property and overriding "model" property from "city" to "amaze"
first boolean parameter true/false is to indicate if we need a deep or shallow copy
It does exactly this
Description: Merge the contents of two or more objects together into the first object.
More at jQuery.extend()
To answer "How does it work?" - which no one here has tried to do.
Here is a very simplified version.
function extend ( target, src ) { // convert all arguments ( even those unseen in the function arity ) // to an array var args = Array.prototype.slice.call ( arguments ), deep = false; if ( typeof target === 'boolean' && target === true ) { // recursive copy // remove deep copy flag from the arguments list deep = args.shift (); // copy to the original target target = args.shift (); } for ( var i = 0, l = args.length; i
Here is up to date source for the actual method