views:

234

answers:

5

I noticed in JQuery that the following code structure is used

(function(){var l=this,g,y=l.jQuery,p=l.$,...})()

Which seems to create a function, and call it.

What is the benefit of taking this approach versus having the contents of the function inline?

+2  A: 

It creates a scope for variables, in particular defining $ for example to bind to jQuery, no matter what other libraries overwrite it. Think of it as an anonymous namespace.

Blindy
A: 

It's just like:

var foo = function(){var l=this,g,y=l.jQuery,p=l.$,...};
foo();

But more simple and do not need a global variable.

XUE Can
+6  A: 

It creates a closure to prevent conflicts with other parts of code. See this:

Particularly handy if you have some other library that uses the $() method and you have to retain the ability to use that with jQuery also. Then you can create a closure such as this:

(function($) {
    // $() is available here
})(jQuery);
Tatu Ulmanen
A: 

It allows to have local variables and operations inside of the function, instead of having to transform them to global ones.

Valentin Rocher
+1  A: 

With self invoking anonymous function you create a local scope, it's very efficient and it directly calls itself.

You can read about it here

Juraj Blahunka