How do you call a function variable in javascript?

Method Reuse

With the call() method, you can write a method that can be used on different objects.

All Functions are Methods

In JavaScript all functions are object methods.

If a function is not a method of a JavaScript object, it is a function of the global object (see previous chapter).

The example below creates an object with 3 properties, firstName, lastName, fullName.

Example

const person = {
  firstName:"John",
  lastName: "Doe",
  fullName: function () {
    return this.firstName + " " + this.lastName;
  }
}

// This will return "John Doe":
person.fullName();

Try it Yourself »

In the example above, this refers to the person object.

this.firstName means the firstName property of this.

Same as:

this.firstName means the firstName property of person.

What is this?

In JavaScript, the this keyword refers to an object.

Which object depends on how this is being invoked (used or called).

The this keyword refers to different objects depending on how it is used:

The JavaScript call() Method

The call() method is a predefined JavaScript method.

It can be used to invoke (call) a method with an owner object as an argument (parameter).

With call(), an object can use a method belonging to another object.

This example calls the fullName method of person, using it on person1:

Example

const person = {
  fullName: function() {
    return this.firstName + " " + this.lastName;
  }
}
const person1 = {
  firstName:"John",
  lastName: "Doe"
}
const person2 = {
  firstName:"Mary",
  lastName: "Doe"
}

// This will return "John Doe":
person.fullName.call(person1);

Try it Yourself »

This example calls the fullName method of person, using it on person2:

Example

const person = {
  fullName: function() {
    return this.firstName + " " + this.lastName;
  }
}
const person1 = {
  firstName:"John",
  lastName: "Doe"
}
const person2 = {
  firstName:"Mary",
  lastName: "Doe"
}

// This will return "Mary Doe"
person.fullName.call(person2);

Try it Yourself »

The call() Method with Arguments

The call() method can accept arguments:

Example

const person = {
  fullName: function(city, country) {
    return this.firstName + " " + this.lastName + "," + city + "," + country;
  }
}

const person1 = {
  firstName:"John",
  lastName: "Doe"
}

person.fullName.call(person1, "Oslo", "Norway");

Try it Yourself »

Definitely avoid using eval to do something like this, or you will open yourself to XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) vulnerabilities.

For example, if you were to use the eval solutions proposed here, a nefarious user could send a link to their victim that looked like this:

http://yoursite.com/foo.html?func=function(){alert('Im%20In%20Teh%20Codez');}

And their javascript, not yours, would get executed. This code could do something far worse than just pop up an alert of course; it could steal cookies, send requests to your application, etc.

So, make sure you never eval untrusted code that comes in from user input (and anything on the query string id considered user input). You could take user input as a key that will point to your function, but make sure that you don't execute anything if the string given doesn't match a key in your object. For example:

// set up the possible functions:
var myFuncs = {
  func1: function () { alert('Function 1'); },
  func2: function () { alert('Function 2'); },
  func3: function () { alert('Function 3'); },
  func4: function () { alert('Function 4'); },
  func5: function () { alert('Function 5'); }
};
// execute the one specified in the 'funcToRun' variable:
myFuncs[funcToRun]();

This will fail if the funcToRun variable doesn't point to anything in the myFuncs object, but it won't execute any code.

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