What is the difference between call and apply?

Question

What is the difference between using call and apply to invoke a function?

var func = function() {
  alert(\'hello!\');
};
         


        

Answer 1

The main difference is, using call, we can change the scope and pass arguments as normal, but apply lets you call it using arguments as an Array (pass them as an array). But in terms of what they to do in your code, they are pretty similar.

While the syntax of this function is almost identical to that of apply(), the fundamental difference is that call() accepts an argument list, while apply() accepts a single array of arguments.

So as you see, there is not a big difference, but still, there are cases we prefer using call() or apply(). For example, look at the code below, which finding the smallest and largest number in an array from MDN, using the apply method:

// min/max number in an array
var numbers = [5, 6, 2, 3, 7];

// using Math.min/Math.max apply
var max = Math.max.apply(null, numbers); 
// This about equal to Math.max(numbers[0], ...)
// or Math.max(5, 6, ...)

var min = Math.min.apply(null, numbers)

So the main difference is just the way we passing the arguments:

Call:

function.call(thisArg, arg1, arg2, ...);

Apply:

function.apply(thisArg, [argsArray]);