Duplicated Argument Names

By  on  

Oftentimes we override or monkey patch functions and, in many cases, there are arguments we don't care too much about. A common practice for those arguments is using _ for argument names -- it's a generally accepted and known practice for "this isn't important". I started thinking about multiple useless arguments and if you could use the same name for the sake of minification -- you can.

So what happens when you use the same argument name more than once? An error? Uses the first value? The last value? Let's have a look:

function myFunc(_, _, _) {
  console.log("_: ", _);
}

myFunc(1, 2, 3);

// >> 3

The duplicated argument is given the value of the last provided argument. If, however, "use strict" is used, an error will be thrown.

For some reason I expected an error when using an argument name more than once. On the other end, you can change argument values so I shouldn't be surprised. Anyway, happy coding!

Recent Features

  • By
    Page Visibility API

    One event that's always been lacking within the document is a signal for when the user is looking at a given tab, or another tab. When does the user switch off our site to look at something else? When do they come back?

  • By
    Animated 3D Flipping Menu with CSS

    CSS animations aren't just for basic fades or sliding elements anymore -- CSS animations are capable of much more.  I've showed you how you can create an exploding logo (applied with JavaScript, but all animation is CSS), an animated Photo Stack, a sweet...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    9 Mind-Blowing WebGL Demos

    As much as developers now loathe Flash, we're still playing a bit of catch up to natively duplicate the animation capabilities that Adobe's old technology provided us.  Of course we have canvas, an awesome technology, one which I highlighted 9 mind-blowing demos.  Another technology available...

  • By
    Image Reflection with jQuery and MooTools

    One subtle detail that can make a big difference on any web design is the use of image reflections. Using them too often can become obnoxious but using reflections on large, "masthead" images is a classy enhancement. Unfortunately creating image reflections within your...

Discussion

    Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!