CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascript
user8758206
user8758206

Reputation: 2191

How to access a scoped function

I'm trying to find a way of accessing a scoped function - take this code for example:

(function() {
  one();
  console.log('IIFE END');

  function scoped() {
    console.log('scoped');
  }

  scoped();
})();

function one() {
  console.log('one');
}

 scoped(); // error

How can I access the call to the function to prevent the error? Using the return keyword fails

Upvotes: 2

Views: 60

Answers (2)

Tim Consolazio
Tim Consolazio

Reputation: 4888

What you're doing is more or less saying "I locked the keys in the car. How do I access the keys." You can't. You locked them up in a way that makes them impossible to retrieve (well, unless you break the window, but you get my point). If you could simply open the door to get the keys there wouldn't be any point to locking the car.

That "scoped" function is the keys locked in the car.

What you want to do, is declare "scoped" outside of that anonymous function (before it, actually). Now, you can call it from within your anon function and outside of it.

You could either:

let scope;

...in anon function...

{ scope = { ...some function }; }

or

const scope = { some function }

... in anon function

scope();

Either way, outside of the anon function, you can now call "scope ()".

I guess I would add, that in JS, it's almost always possible to grab something that isn't intended to be grabbed. You could probably work with a top-level "this", or something, or just name your anon function (so essentially creating a named object that is of type function) and accessing the members of it by bracket notation. You would probably have to remove the immediate return though and call it in another line of code (after the function declaration).

But that's all hackery voodoo. You're breaking the window. In the day to day, what you say you want to do here is by design verboten.

Upvotes: 3

Ciabaros
Ciabaros

Reputation: 2159

Depending on how flexible you are, you can do this:

const scoped = (function() {
  one();
  console.log('IIFE END');

  function scoped() {
    console.log('scoped');
  }

  scoped();
  return scoped;
})();

function one() {
  console.log('one');
}

scoped(); // NO error :)

Or if your function's return is reserved for something else, just do this:

var scoped;  // If you don't want this pre-declaration, you can just use a global scope instead (e.g. window.scoped)

(function() {
  one();
  console.log('IIFE END');

  scoped = function() {
    console.log('scoped');
  }

  scoped();
})();

function one() {
  console.log('one');
}

scoped(); // NO error :)

Upvotes: 2

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