Call and apply

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Functions have two built-in methods that allow the programmer to supply arguments and the this variable differently: call and apply.

This is useful, because functions that operate on one object (the object that they are a property of) can be repurposed to operate on another, compatible object. Additionally, arguments can be given in one shot as arrays, similar to the spread (...) operator in ES6.

let obj = {
    a: 1,
    b: 2,
    set: function (a, b) {
        this.a = a;
        this.b = b;
    }
};

obj.set(3, 7); // normal syntax
obj.set.call(obj, 3, 7); // equivalent to the above
obj.set.apply(obj, [3, 7]); // equivalent to the above; note that an array is used

console.log(obj); // prints { a: 3, b: 5 }

let myObj = {};
myObj.set(5, 4); // fails; myObj has no `set` property
obj.set.call(myObj, 5, 4); // success; `this` in set() is re-routed to myObj instead of obj
obj.set.apply(myObj, [5, 4]); // same as above; note the array

console.log(myObj); // prints { a: 3, b: 5 }

ECMAScript 5 introduced another method called bind() in addition to call() and apply() to explicitly set this value of the function to specific object.

It behaves quite differently than the other two. The first argument to bind() is the this value for the new function. All other arguments represent named parameters that should be permanently set in the new function.

function showName(label) {
    console.log(label + ":" + this.name);
}
var student1 = {
     name: "Ravi"
};
var student2 = {
     name: "Vinod"
};

// create a function just for student1
var showNameStudent1 = showName.bind(student1);
showNameStudent1("student1"); // outputs "student1:Ravi"

// create a function just for student2
var showNameStudent2 = showName.bind(student2, "student2");
showNameStudent2(); // outputs "student2:Vinod"

// attaching a method to an object doesn't change `this` value of that method.
student2.sayName = showNameStudent1;
student2.sayName("student2"); // outputs "student2:Ravi"

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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