Assigning document.getElementById to another function

Question

I am trying to do the following in JavaScript:

var gete = document.getElementById;

But I am getting the following error (From FireBug's Console):

uncaught exception: [Exception... "Illegal operation on WrappedNative prototype object" nsresult: "0x8057000c (NS_ERROR_XPC_BAD_OP_ON_WN_PROTO)" location: "JS frame :: http://localhost:8080/im_ass1/ :: anonymous :: line 15" data: no]

Now obviously I can wrap the function as follows:

var gete = function (id) {
    return document.getElementById(id);
};

But what is the reason I'm getting the above exception when assigning the function to another name?

Answer 1

To invoke an alias of document.getElementById in Firefox and Google Chrome, you should be doing it as follows:

var gete = document.getElementById;
gete.call(document, 'header').innerHTML = 'new';

You may want to check out the following Stack Overflow post for a detailed explanation behind this:

• JavaScript function aliasing doesn’t seem to work

Answer 2

The Prototype JavaScript library provides a bind() function that binds a function with an object so that it can be called directly without having to use func.call(thisObj) for each call.

var func = document.getElementById.bind(document);
func("foo");  // We don't have to use func.call(doument, "foo")

bind() will be part of the language in ECMAScript 5.

Answer 3

You can bind or call or apply if you like, or you can assign the function directly, as you observed-

var gete= function(s){return document.getElementById(s)}

But why not improve it a tad, or what's the use?

var gete= function(s){return s && s.nodeType==1? s: document.getElementById(s)}