Understanding JavaScript Closures With Ease

Closures allow JavaScript programmers to write better code

Closures allow JavaScript programmers to write better code. Creative, expressive, and concise. We frequently use closures in JavaScript, and, no matter your JavaScript experience, you will undoubtedly encounter them time and again.

Sure, closures might appear complex and beyond your scope, but after you read this article, closures will be much more easily understood and thus more appealing for your everyday JavaScript programming tasks.

This is a relatively short (and sweet) post on the details of closures in JavaScript. You should be familiar with JavaScript’s variable scope before you read further because to understand closures you must understand JavaScript’s variable scope.

What Is Closure?

A closure is an inner function that has access to the outer (enclosing) function’s variables — scope chain.

The closure has three scope chains:

• It has access to its own scope (variables defined between its curly brackets).
• It has access to the outer function’s variables.
• It has access to the global variables.

The inner function has access not only to the outer function’s variables but also to the outer function’s parameters. Note that the inner function cannot call the outer function’s arguments to object, however, even though it can call the outer function’s parameters directly.

You create a closure by adding a function inside another function. Closures are used extensively in Node.js; they are workhorses in Node.js’ asynchronous, non-blocking architecture.

Closures are also frequently used in jQuery and just about every piece of JavaScript code you read.

A basic example of closures in JavaScript:

function showName (firstName, lastName) {
var nameIntro = "Your name is ";
// this inner function has access to the outer function's     //variables, including the parameter
function makeFullName () {     
return nameIntro + firstName + " " + lastName;   
}
return makeFullName ();
}
showName ("Michael", "Jackson"); // Your name is Michael Jackson

Closure Rules and Side Effects

Closures have access to the outer function’s variable even after the outer function returns

One of the most important and ticklish features of closures is that the inner function still has access to the outer function’s variables even after the outer function has returned.

Yep, you read that correctly. When functions in JavaScript execute, they use the same scope chain that was in effect when they were created.

This means that even after the outer function has returned, the inner function still has access to the outer function’s variables. Therefore, you can call the inner function later in your program.

This example demonstrates:

function celebrityName (firstName) {
    var nameIntro = "This celebrity is ";
// this inner function has access to the outer function's               //variables, including the parameter
   function lastName (theLastName) {
        return nameIntro + firstName + " " + theLastName;
    }
    return lastName;
}

var mjName = celebrityName ("Michael"); // At this juncture, the  //celebrityName outer function has returned.

// The closure (lastName) is called hereafter the outer function //has returned above
// Yet, the closure still has access to the outer function's //variables and parameter
mjName ("Jackson"); // This celebrity is Michael Jackson

Closures store references to the outer function’s variables

They do not store the actual value.

Closures get more interesting when the value of the outer function’s variable changes before the closure is called. And this powerful feature can be harnessed in creative ways, such as the example of this private variable, first demonstrated by Douglas Crockford:

function celebrityID () {
var celebrityID = 999;
//We are returning an object with some inner functions
//All the inner functions have access to the outer function's //variables
    return {
        getID: function ()  {
//This inner function will return the UPDATED celebrityID variable
//It will return the current value of celebrityID, even after the //changeTheID function changes it
          return celebrityID;
        },
        setID: function (theNewID)  {
//This inner function willchange outer function's variable anytime
            celebrityID = theNewID;
        }
    }
}

var mjID = celebrityID (); // At this juncture, the celebrityID //outer function has returned.
mjID.getID(); // 999
mjID.setID(567); // Changes the outer function's variable
mjID.getID(); // 567: It returns the updated celebrityId variable

Closures gone awry

Because closures have access to the updated values of the outer function’s variables, they can also lead to bugs when the outer function’s variable changes with a for-loop.

Thus:

// This example is explained in detail below (just after this code box).
function celebrityIDCreator (theCelebrities) {
    var i;
    var uniqueID = 100;
    for (i = 0; i < theCelebrities.length; i++) {
      theCelebrities[i]["id"] = function ()  {
        return uniqueID + i;
      }
    }
    return theCelebrities;
}

var actionCelebs = [{name:"Stallone", id:0}, {name:"Cruise", id:0}, {name:"Willis", id:0}];

var createIdForActionCelebs = celebrityIDCreator (actionCelebs);

var stalloneID = createIdForActionCelebs[0]console.log(stalloneID.id()); // 103

In the preceding example, by the time the anonymous functions are called, the value of i is 3 (the length of the array and then it increments).

The number 3 was added to the uniqueID to create 103 for all the celebritiesID. So, every position in the returned array gets id = 103, instead of the intended 100, 101, 102.

The reason this happened was that, as we have discussed in the previous example, the closure (the anonymous function in this example) has access to the outer function’s variables by reference, not by value.

So, just as the previous example showed that we can access the updated variable with the closure, this example similarly accessed the i variable when it was changed, as the outer function runs the entire for loop and returns the last value of i, which is 103.

To fix this side effect (bug) in closures, you can use an immediately-invoked function expression (IIFE), such as the following:

function celebrityIDCreator (theCelebrities) {
    var i;
    var uniqueID = 100;
    for (i = 0; i < theCelebrities.length; i++) {
        theCelebrities[i]["id"] = function (j)  { 
//the j parametric variable is the i passed in on invocation of this //IIFE
            return function () {
                return uniqueID + j; // each iteration of the for //loop passes the current value of i into this IIFE and it saves the //correct value to the array
            } () // BY adding () at the end of this function, we are //executing it immediately and returning just the value of //uniqueID+ j, instead of returning a function.
        } (i); // immediately invoke the function passing the i //variable as a parameter
    }

    return theCelebrities;
}

var actionCelebs = [{name:"Stallone", id:0}, {name:"Cruise", id:0}, {name:"Willis", id:0}];

var createIdForActionCelebs = celebrityIDCreator (actionCelebs);

var stalloneID = createIdForActionCelebs [0];
console.log(stalloneID.id); // 100

var cruiseID = createIdForActionCelebs [1];
console.log(cruiseID.id); // 101