Function overloading in Javascript - Best practice

Question

What is the best way(s) to fake function overloading in Javascript?

I know it is not possible to overload functions in Javascript as in other languages. If I needed a function with two uses foo(x) and foo(x,y,z) which is the best / preferred way:

1. Using different names in the first place
2. Using optional arguments like y = y || 'default'
3. Using number of arguments
4. Checking types of arguments
5. Or how?

Answer 1

I'm not sure about best practice, but here is how I do it:

/*
 * Object Constructor
 */
var foo = function(x) {
    this.x = x;
};

/*
 * Object Protoype
 */
foo.prototype = {
    /*
     * f is the name that is going to be used to call the various overloaded versions
     */
    f: function() {

        /*
         * Save 'this' in order to use it inside the overloaded functions
         * because there 'this' has a different meaning.
         */   
        var that = this;  

        /* 
         * Define three overloaded functions
         */
        var f1 = function(arg1) {
            console.log("f1 called with " + arg1);
            return arg1 + that.x;
        }

        var f2 = function(arg1, arg2) {
             console.log("f2 called with " + arg1 + " and " + arg2);
             return arg1 + arg2 + that.x;
        }

        var f3 = function(arg1) {
             console.log("f3 called with [" + arg1[0] + ", " + arg1[1] + "]");
             return arg1[0] + arg1[1];
        }

        /*
         * Use the arguments array-like object to decide which function to execute when calling f(...)
         */
        if (arguments.length === 1 && !Array.isArray(arguments[0])) {
            return f1(arguments[0]);
        } else if (arguments.length === 2) {
            return f2(arguments[0], arguments[1]);
        } else if (arguments.length === 1 && Array.isArray(arguments[0])) {
            return f3(arguments[0]);
        }
    } 
}

/* 
 * Instantiate an object
 */
var obj = new foo("z");

/*
 * Call the overloaded functions using f(...)
 */
console.log(obj.f("x"));         // executes f1, returns "xz"
console.log(obj.f("x", "y"));    // executes f2, returns "xyz"
console.log(obj.f(["x", "y"]));  // executes f3, returns "xy"

Answer 2

We made over.js to solve this problem is a very elegant way. You can do:

var obj = {

  /**
   * Says something in the console.
   *
   * say(msg) - Says something once.
   * say(msg, times) - Says something many times.
   */
  say: Over(
    function(msg$string){
      console.info(msg$string);
    },
    function(msg$string, times$number){
      for (var i = 0; i < times$number; i++) this.say(msg$string);
    }
  )

};

Answer 3

I like @AntouanK's approach. I often find myself offering a function with different numbers o parameters and different types. Sometimes they don't follow a order. I use to map looking the types of parameters:

findUDPServers: function(socketProperties, success, error) {
    var fqnMap = [];

    fqnMap['undefined'] = fqnMap['function'] = function(success, error) {
        var socketProperties = {name:'HELLO_SERVER'};

        this.searchServers(socketProperties, success, error);
    };

    fqnMap['object'] = function(socketProperties, success, error) {
        var _socketProperties = _.merge({name:'HELLO_SERVER'}, socketProperties || {});

        this.searchServers(_socketProperties, success, error);
    };

    fqnMap[typeof arguments[0]].apply(this, arguments);
}

Answer 4

Since JavaScript doesn't have function overload options object can be used instead. If there are one or two required arguments, it's better to keep them separate from the options object. Here is an example on how to use options object and populated values to default value in case if value was not passed in options object.

    function optionsObjectTest(x, y, opts) {
        opts = opts || {}; // default to an empty options object

        var stringValue = opts.stringValue || "string default value";
        var boolValue = !!opts.boolValue; // coerces value to boolean with a double negation pattern
        var numericValue = opts.numericValue === undefined ? 123 : opts.numericValue;

        return "{x:" + x + ", y:" + y + ", stringValue:'" + stringValue + "', boolValue:" + boolValue + ", numericValue:" + numericValue + "}";

}

here is an example on how to use options object

Answer 5

For your use case, this is how I would tackle it with ES6 (since it's already the end of 2017):

const foo = (x, y, z) => {
  if (y && z) {
    // Do your foo(x, y, z); functionality
    return output;
  }
  // Do your foo(x); functionality
  return output;
}

You can obviously adapt this to work with any amount of parameters and just change your conditional statements accordingly.

Answer 6

I've been using this function to prettify my overloads for years:

function overload(){
  const fs = arguments, fallback = fs[fs.length - 1];
  return function(){
    const f = fs[arguments.length] || (arguments.length >= fs.length ? fallback : null);
    return f.apply(this, arguments);
  }
}

Demostrated:

function curry1(f){
  return curry2(f, f.length);
}

function curry2(f, minimum){
  return function(...applied){
    if (applied.length >= minimum) {
      return f.apply(this, applied);
    } else {
      return curry2(function(...args){
        return f.apply(this, applied.concat(args));
      }, minimum - applied.length);
    }
  }
}

export const curry = overload(null, curry1, curry2);

Take a look at jQuery's off method:

  function off( types, selector, fn ) {
    var handleObj, type;
    if ( types && types.preventDefault && types.handleObj ) {

        // ( event )  dispatched jQuery.Event
        handleObj = types.handleObj;
        jQuery( types.delegateTarget ).off(
            handleObj.namespace ?
                handleObj.origType + "." + handleObj.namespace :
                handleObj.origType,
            handleObj.selector,
            handleObj.handler
        );
        return this;
    }
    if ( typeof types === "object" ) {

        // ( types-object [, selector] )
        for ( type in types ) {
            this.off( type, selector, types[ type ] );
        }
        return this;
    }
    if ( selector === false || typeof selector === "function" ) {

        // ( types [, fn] )
        fn = selector;
        selector = undefined;
    }
    if ( fn === false ) {
        fn = returnFalse;
    }
    return this.each( function() {
        jQuery.event.remove( this, types, fn, selector );
    } );
  }

Many overloaded functions when optimized for performance are nigh unreadable. You have to decipher the head of the function. This is perhaps faster than using an overload function like I provide; however, it is slower from a human perspective with regard to identifying which overload was called.