that, self or me — which one to prefer in JavaScript?

Question

While coding JavaScript sometimes you store the reference of object this in a local variable for different purposes (to set proper scope, to help code obfuscato

Answer 1

I, personally, use that, but anything else that's clear is fine.

I wouldn't use self because the global variable/window-property self already exists as a reference to window. Although it's totally useless (so no-one is likely to care that you're shadowing it), it slightly increases the risk of silly errors going unnoticed:

var se1f= this;         // misspelled (perniciously). or maybe you just forgot to write line
onclick= function() {
    self.foo= 1;        // whoops, just wrote to `window`!
};

whereas:

var that= this;
onclick= function() {
    that.foo= 1;        // error thrown
};

Slightly contrived, but JavaScript's so sloppy with letting errors slide you don't really want to make it any more so.