Why do you need to invoke an anonymous function on the same line?

Question

I was reading some posts about closures and saw this everywhere, but there is no clear explanation how it works - everytime I was just told to use it...:

//          


        

Answer 1

An anonymous function is not a function with the name "". It is simply a function without a name.

Like any other value in JavaScript, a function does not need a name to be created. Though it is far more useful to actually bind it to a name just like any other value.

But like any other value, you sometimes want to use it without binding it to a name. That's the self-invoking pattern.

Here is a function and a number, not bound, they do nothing and can never be used:

function(){ alert("plop"); }
2;

So we have to store them in a variable to be able to use them, just like any other value:

var f = function(){ alert("plop"); }
var n = 2;

You can also use syntatic sugar to bind the function to a variable:

function f(){ alert("plop"); }
var n = 2;

But if naming them is not required and would lead to more confusion and less readability, you could just use them right away.

(function(){ alert("plop"); })(); // will display "plop"
alert(2 + 3); // will display 5

Here, my function and my numbers are not bound to a variable, but they can still be used.

Said like this, it looks like self-invoking function have no real value. But you have to keep in mind that JavaScript scope delimiter is the function and not the block ({}).

So a self-invoking function actually has the same meaning as a C++, C# or Java block. Which means that variable created inside will not "leak" outside the scope. This is very useful in JavaScript in order not to pollute the global scope.