Function Application
apply() takes two parameters: the first one is an object to bind to this inside of the function, the second is an array or arguments, which then becomes the array-like arguments object available inside the function. If the first parameter is null, then this points to the global object, which is exactly what happens when you call a function that is not a method of a specific object.
// define a function var sayHi = function(who) { return "Hello" + ( who ? ", " + who : "") + "!"; }; // invoke a function sayHi(); // "Hello" sayHi(‘world‘); // "Hello, world!" // apply a function sayHi.apply(null, ["hello"]); // "Hello, hello!" //----------------------------------------------------------------------- var alien = { sayHi : function(who) { return "Hello" + ( who ? ", " + who : "") + "!"; } }; alien.sayHi(‘world‘); // "Hello, world!" sayHi.apply(alien, ["humans"]); // "Hello, humans!"
In the preceding snippet, this inside of sayHi() points to alien. In the previous example this points to the global object.
When you have a function that takes only one parameter, you can save the work of creating arrays with just one element:
// the second is more efficient, saves an array sayHi.apply(alien, ["humans"]); // "Hello, humans!" sayHi.call(alien, "humans"); // "Hello, humans!"
Partial Application
var add = function(x, y) { return x + y; }; // full application add.apply(null, [5, 4]); // 9 // partial application var newadd = add.partialApply(null, [5]); // applying an argument to the new function newadd.apply(null, [4]); // 9
Here’s no partialApply() method and functions in JavaScript don’t behave like this by default. But you can make them, because JavaScript is dynamic enough to allow this. The process of making a function understand and handle partial application is called currying.
// a curried add() // accepts partial list of arguments function add(x, y) { var oldx = x, oldy = y; if ( typeof oldy === "undefined") {// partial return function(newy) { return oldx + newy; }; } // full application return x + y; } // test typeof add(5); // "function" add(3)(4); // 7 // create and store a new function var add2000 = add(2000); add2000(10); // 2010
General-purpose currying function
function schonfinkelize(fn) { var slice = Array.prototype.slice, stored_args = slice.call(arguments, 1); return function() { var new_args = slice.call(arguments), args = stored_args.concat(new_args); return fn.apply(null, args); }; } // a normal function function add(x, y) { return x + y; } // curry a function to get a new function var newadd = schonfinkelize(add, 5); newadd(4); // 9 // another option -- call the new function directly schonfinkelize(add, 6)(7); // 13 // a normal function function add(a, b, c, d, e) { return a + b + c + d + e; } // works with any number of arguments schonfinkelize(add, 1, 2, 3)(5, 5); // 16 // two-step currying var addOne = schonfinkelize(add, 1); addOne(10, 10, 10, 10); // 41 var addSix = schonfinkelize(addOne, 2, 3); addSix(5, 5); // 16
When to Use Currying
When you find yourself calling the same function and passing mostly the same parameters, then the function is probably a good candidate for currying. You can create a new function dynamically by partially applying a set of arguments to your function. The new function will keep the repeated parameters stored (so you don’t have to pass them every time) and will use them to pre-fill the full list of arguments that the original function expects.