Alex Rivera | Logout

"this" inside an anonymous function?

Asked 2012-03-04T02:55:37.577
11

Inside John Resig's book "Pro Javascript techniques" he describes a way of generating dynamic object methods with the below code:

// Create a new user object that accepts an object of properties
function User(properties) {
    // Iterate through the properties of the object, and make sure
    // that it's properly scoped (as discussed previously)
    for (var i in properties) {
        (function() {
            // Create a new getter for the property
            this["get" + i] = function() {
                return properties[i];
            };
            // Create a new setter for the property
            this["set" + i] = function(val) {
                properties[i] = val;
            };
        })();
    }
}

The problem is when I try instantiating the above object, the dynamic methods are being attached to the window object instead of the object instantiated. It seems like "this" is referring to the window.

// Create a new user object instance and pass in an object of
// properties to seed it with
var user = new User({
name: "Bob",
age: 44
});

alert( user.getname() );

Running the above code throws this error "user.getname is not a function".

What is the correct way of generating the dynamic functions for each object instantiated?

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1 Answer

1

You can always force another this for any function call, using the apply method.

(function() {
    // Create a new getter for the property
    this["get" + i] = function() {
        return properties[i];
    };
    // Create a new setter for the property
    this["set" + i] = function(val) {
        properties[i] = val;
    };
}).apply(this);
answered 2012-03-04T03:10:08.597

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