Javascript wrapping code inside anonymous function

Question

I need help understanding this pattern for jQuery plugin authoring. Can somebody explain this simple bit of code for me?

(function($) { /* Code here */ })(jQ         


        

Answer 1

+1 for jfriend00's answer.

But including jQuery in a page overwrites both of the global symbols jQuery and $ (see jQuery.js line 9579) potentially causing conflicts with other libraries that define a global $.

So taking this a step further to also stop the global $ conflict:

(function($) {
    // you can use $ here to refer to jQuery
})(jQuery.noConflict());

as demonstrated by: