Question

I have seen a snippet like this for detecting IE in JavaScript using conditional comments.

var ie = (function(){

    var undef, v = 3, div = document.createElement('div');

    // the while loop is used without an associated block: {}
    // so, only the condition within the () is executed.

    // semicolons arent allowed within the condition,
    //   so a comma is used to stand in for one
    // basically allowing the two separate statements 
    //   to be evaluated sequentially.

    while (
        div.innerHTML = '<!--[if gt IE '+(++v)+']><i></i><![endif]-->',
        div.getElementsByTagName('i')[0]
    );

    // each time it's evaluated, v gets incremented and
    //   tossed into the DOM as a conditional comment
    // the i element is then a child of the div.

    // the return value of the getEBTN call is used as 
    //   the final condition expression
    // if there is an i element (the IE conditional
    //   succeeded), then getEBTN's return is truthy
    // and the loop continues until there is no 
    //   more i elements.

    // In other words:  ** MAGIC**

    return v > 4 ? v : undef;

}());

The above given is the documented (and slightly improved) version by Paul Irish on a snippet by James Padolsey. I am posting the commented version to let you know that I might need a simpler explanation if anybody may.

I would really like to know what happens inside the while loop. I don’t understand that.

Answer 1

(Assuming I haven’t bungled this up horribly) the while loop is equivalent to the following:

var elt;

do
{
    v++;
    div.innerHTML = '<!--[if gt IE ' + v + ']><i></i><![endif]-->'
    elt = div.getElementsByTagName('i')[0];
} (while elt);

---

does mdc or any good ones cover this while(stmt1, stmt2) thing.

Here’s what MDC says about while:

while (condition)
    statement

condition
An expression evaluated before each pass through the loop. If this condition evaluates to true, statement is executed. When condition evaluates to false, execution continues with the statement after the while loop.

We can find out exactly what an expression is in JavaScript from MDC:

An expression is any valid set of literals, variables, operators, and expressions that evaluates to a single value; the value can be a number, a string, or a logical value.

Conceptually, there are two types of expressions: those that assign a value to a variable, and those that simply have a value. For example, the expression x = 7 is an expression that assigns x the value seven. This expression itself evaluates to seven. Such expressions use assignment operators. On the other hand, the expression 3 + 4 simply evaluates to seven; it does not perform an assignment. The operators used in such expressions are referred to simply as operators.

If you’re feeling brave, you can also check out the ECMA-262 language specification, specifically the following sections:

• 11 Expressions, especially 11.14 Comma Operator ( , )
• 12.6.2 The while Statement

_{Sorry I can’t provide direct links as it’s all inside of a PDF.}