Question

I have a generic function which can speak to multiple other functions in appropriate objects is it possible to use a string to call the appropriate function.

 var string = "save";

 var generic = (new function (string) { 

                string."alert()";


               return this;
               })




 var save = (new function (string) { 

    this.alert = (function () {

              alert("your document has been saved")                    

              return this         

              })

        return this 
          })

var notSaved = (new function (string) { 

    this.alert = (function () {

              alert("your document has not been saved")                    

              return this         

              })

        return this 
          })

I am using it for a far more complex set up but here is an example. Is this possible?

Answer 1

You can enclose your functions within some object so you can access by passing name of the property using some variable (in this case named string), eg. like that:

var string = 'notSaved';
var funcs = {};

funcs.save = new function(){
    this.alert = function(){
        alert('called save.alert()');
    };
    return this;
};

funcs.notSaved = new function(){
    this.alert = function(){
        alert('called notSaved.alert()');
    };
    return this;
};

funcs[string].alert();

See working example on jsfiddle.

If your variables are global (they should not), they are also automatically enclosed within window object, so you can call them also like that: window[string].alert(). This will not work for non-global functions (in this case my solution seems to be the only one not using eval()).