Question

I have a variable name that I pass into a plugin, but the variable is actually a function.
I use jquery $.isFunction to check if it is a function, and if it is, it should execute the function.

But I can’t seem to make it work, I put some examples in jsfiddle:http://jsfiddle.net/tZ6U9/8/

But here is a sample code:

HTML

<a class="one" href="#">click</a><br />
<a class="two" href="#">click</a><br />
<a class="three" href="#">click</a><br />

JS

$(document).ready(function() {

help = function(var1) {
    alert(var1);
}

function help2(var1) {
    alert(var1);
}


$('a.one').click(function() {
    var functionName = "help";
    if ($.isFunction([functionName])) {[functionName]("hello");
    } else {
        alert("not a function");
    }

    return false;
});

$('a.two').click(function() {
    var functionName = "help";

    if ($.isFunction(functionName)) {
        functionName("hello");
    } else {
        alert("not a function");
    }
    return false;
});

$('a.three').click(function() {
    var functionName = "help2";

    if ($.isFunction(functionName)) {
        functionName("hello");
    } else {
        alert("not a function");
    }
    return false;
});

$('a.four').click(function() {
    var functionName = "help2";

    if ($.isFunction([functionName])) {[functionName]("hello");
    } else {
        alert("not a function");
    }
    return false;
});

});​

As you can see, I tired a bunch of things, but all the wrong ones probably…
I inspired some of them from: jQuery – use variable as function name

Overall
I’m passing a variable that has the same name as a function, using jquery to check if it is a function, if it is, it should execute the function.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

If you are wanting to call a function by a string of its name just use window.

var functionName = "help";
if ($.isFunction(window[functionName])) {
    window[functionName]("hello");
} else {
    alert("not a function");
}