I have trouble understanding the scoping rules in Javascript.
In the example below, I would assume that scope url variable is private in the for-loop. And that the onload-event function would see this private instance.
But things does not seems work like that - the alert will popup with the last url twice.
If somebody can clarify what is going on, I'll be grateful.
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
var testArray = ["http://g0.gstatic.com/images/icons/onebox/weather_rain-40.png", "http://g0.gstatic.com/images/icons/onebox/weather_scatteredshowers-40.png"];
for (var i=0;i<testArray.length;i++){
var img = new Image();
var url = testArray[i];
img.onload = function(){
alert(url);
}
img.src = url;
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
Javascript is not block-scoped, and thus requires a new function every time you want a new scope. See the answer by patrick dw.
This is why it is advantageous to use [].map(function(x){...})
or [].forEach(function(x){...})
which are in the javascript standard, since you'll need to define those functions anyway.
var imageArray = urlArray.map(function(url) {
var image = new Image();
image.src = url;
image.onload = function() {
alert(url);
};
return image;
});
JavaScript does not have block-scope.
The only way to create new variable scope is in a function.
var testArray = ["http://g0.gstatic.com/images/icons/onebox/weather_rain-40.png", "http://g0.gstatic.com/images/icons/onebox/weather_scatteredshowers-40.png"];
function createImg( url ) {
var img = new Image();
img.onload = function(){
alert(url);
}
img.src = url;
return img;
}
for (var i=0;i<testArray.length;i++){
var img = createImg(testArray[i]);
}
Passing the testArray[i]
to a function that creates and returns the new image ensure that the url
referenced in the onload
handler will be the one that was scoped in the function.
EDIT:
Ultimately, you'd never do this if all you need is access to the url
.
You'd just get it from the property of the element via this
.
function onloadHandler(){
alert( this.src ); // <--- get the url from the .src property!
}
var testArray = ["http://g0.gstatic.com/images/icons/onebox/weather_rain-40.png", "http://g0.gstatic.com/images/icons/onebox/weather_scatteredshowers-40.png"];
for (var i=0;i<testArray.length;i++){
var img = new Image();
var url = testArray[i];
img.onload = onloadHandler;
img.src = url;
}
This way you're not creating an identical handler function instance in the loop, but rather sharing the same instance, and referencing the element that received the event via this
.
Try this :)
var testArray = ["http://g0.gstatic.com/images/icons/onebox/weather_rain-40.png", "http://g0.gstatic.com/images/icons/onebox/weather_scatteredshowers-40.png"];
for (var i=0;i<testArray.length;i++){
var img = new Image();
var url = testArray[i];
img.onload = function(){
alert([img.src, url, i]);
}
img.src = url;
}