Perhaps I'm not aware of how for
loop index variables get scoped, but I was very surprised when one of my loops didn't complete, seemingly because a function called from within a loop contained an i
for its for
loop index as well.
Here's a little script I put together to demonstrate this behavior:
var loopOne = function(test) {
for(i = 0; i < test.length; i++)
console.log(getMask(test));
};
var getMask = function(pass) {
var s = "";
for (i = 0; i < pass.length; i++) {
s = s + "*";
}
return s;
};
loopOne('hello');
If I run this in Chrome and look at the console log, I should see *****
five times. However, I only see it once. Upon further inspection, if I type i
in the Chrome javascript console, it will output 6 ( = 'hello'.length + 1
). This makes me think that i
has become a part of the global scope and is not limited to the scope of the for
loop for which it was needed.
Is this correct? If so, what's a better practice for defining the index variable of a for
loop in javascript?