Accessing “Public” methods from “Private” methods in javascript class

Question

Is there a way to call \"public\" javascript functions from \"private\" ones within a class?

Check out the class below:

function Class()
{
    this.p         


        

Answer 1

The accepted answer has the possibly undesirable side effect that separate copies of publicMethod, test, and privateMethod will be created in each instance. The idiom for avoiding this is:

function Class()
{}

Class.prototype=(function()
{
    var privateMethod = function(self)
    {
        self.publicMethod();
    }


    return 
    {
        publicMethod: function()
        {
            alert("hello");
        },
        test: function()
        {
            privateMethod(this);
        }
    };
}());

In other words, you need to pass the this to the private function as an argument. In return, you get a true prototype without having to pollute each instance with its own versions of the private and public functions.