How does .apply(Math, arrayName) work? (javascript)

Question

There is more than one stackoverflow question about how to find the min or max of an array of values in javascript. This is not that question.

I want to know why pas

Answer 1

This (so to speak) is a tricky part of JavaScript.

When you have a function, there's a magical variable called this. Depending on how you call a function, its context is set differently.

function myFunction() {
  return this;
}

var myObject = {
  fn: function() {
    return this;
  }
};

myFunction();  // the global object. `window` in browsers, `global` in Node.js
myFunction.apply(Math);  // Math
myFunction.apply({ hello: "world" });  // { hello: "world" }

myObject.fn();               // myObject
myObject.fn.apply(myObject); // myObject
myObject.fn.apply(Math);     // Math

The reason that your examples above work is because min doesn't use this at all, so you can assign it to whatever you want.