What does this type of function mean in javascript?

Question

In the below, I'm confused by the syntax

(function (h,j) { })

What does it mean in javascript to have a function sit inside ()'s like that?

function myfunc(c, b) {
    try {
            (function (h, j) {
                //do a bunch of stuff
            })
    } catch (e) {
        myerror(e)
    }
};

Answer 1

That syntax is what is known as an Anonymous Function. Most often, you will see them used as callbacks for various other function calls (for example, in jQuery).

Answer 2

It's a kind of inline function, so you can take the advantages of covariance. By this I mean,inside

(function (h, j) { //do a bunch of stuff }) You can access the variables of the containing function , here it's function myfunc(c, b) {}

Answer 3

By itself, such a function declaration is useless. This kind of declaration is only useful if you actually invoke the function, which is done like this:

(function (h, j) { ... } (x, y));

This is usually done to hide variables, since JavaScript only has function scope (no block scope).

Edit:

Some examples - hopefully these don't confuse things...

As mentioned in a comment, this technique is useful for keeping variables out of the global scope. For example, some initialisation script might do the following:

(function () {
    var x = 42;
    var y = 'foo';

    function doInitialisation(a, b) {
        // ...
    }

    doInitialisation(x, y);
}());

None of x, y or doInitialisation are visible after the function completes.

Another use-case is for avoiding closures in loops. E.g. the following causes a well-known problem:

var links = document.getElementsByTagName('a');
for (var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) {
    links[i].onclick = function () {
        alert(i);
    };
}

In the above example, every onclick handler shares the same value of i. Function scope can avoid this:

var links = document.getElementsByTagName('a');
for (var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) {
    links[i].onclick = (function (x) {
        return function() {
            alert(x);
        }
    }(i));
}

Answer 4

() is a grouping operator, and it returns the result of evaluating the expression inside it.

So while

> function(x,y) {}
SyntaxError: Unexpected token (

by itself is a SyntaxError, but by surrounding it in parentheses, the expression inside the parentheses is evaluated and returned.

> (function(x,y) {})
function (x,y) {}

Function expressions and declarations do not yield any value, so we get undefined as a result.

Function Declaration

> function a(x,y) {}
undefined

Function Declaration (with grouping operator)

(function a(x,y) {})
function a(x,y) {}

Function Expression

> var x = function(x,y) {}
undefined

Function Expression (with grouping operator)

> var x;
> (x = function(x,y) {})
function (x,y) {}

However, the usage in your example seems to be useless. It does nothing.