Question

I have this function

function update_prices(product_selector){
    //kind of a hack to account for the sometimes having a professional price and sometimes not
    var price_count = product_selector.find('small.rt').length;
    for (i=0;i<=price_count;i++)
    {
        if(i == 0){
            var standard_selector = product_selector.find('small.rt:eq('+ i +')');
            var standard_price = standard_selector.attr('data');
        }
        if(i == 1){
            var business_selector = product_selector.find('small.rt:eq('+ i +')');
            var business_price = business_selector.attr('data');
        }
        if(i == 2){
            var professional_selector = product_selector.find('small.rt:eq('+ i +')');
            var professional_price = professional_selector.attr('data');
        }
    }
}

and i have this chunk of code that calls it

....
....
product_selector.find(".active_selector").removeClass('active_selector');
update_prices(product_selector);
....
....

standard_selector.text("something");
business_selector.text("something else");
professional_selector.text("another thing");

My question is how do i keep the scope for the three variables standard_selector business_selector and professional_selector that get created in the update_prices function

Answer 1

To keep those variables persistent after the function declaration, you have these choices:

1. They have to be declared at a higher level scope that persists for the duration you need them.
2. They need to be global variables that last for the life of the web page.
3. They need to be assigned as properties of some object that persists for the desired duration. This could be done by returning an object with these values from the function or passing an object into the function that properties can be set on or by having a global object that put the properties on.

The simplest solution (thought not always the best) is to make them global variables by declaring them at a higher scope and removing the var in front of them in the function so you are just operating on the global variables instead of using local variables:

// declare global variables in global scope
var standard_selector;
var business_selector;
var profession_selector;

function update_prices(product_selector){
    //kind of a hack to account for the sometimes having a professional price and sometimes not
    var price_count = product_selector.find('small.rt').length;
    for (i=0;i<=price_count;i++)
    {
        if(i == 0){
            standard_selector = product_selector.find('small.rt:eq('+ i +')');
            var standard_price = standard_selector.attr('data');
        }
        if(i == 1){
            business_selector = product_selector.find('small.rt:eq('+ i +')');
            var business_price = business_selector.attr('data');
        }
        if(i == 2){
            professional_selector = product_selector.find('small.rt:eq('+ i +')');
            var professional_price = professional_selector.attr('data');
        }
    }
}

Or, if you just want to return them from this function so you can use them one level up in scope, then you could return them in an object:

function update_prices(product_selector){
    //kind of a hack to account for the sometimes having a professional price and sometimes not
    var sel = {};
    var price_count = product_selector.find('small.rt').length;
    for (i=0;i<=price_count;i++)
    {
        if(i == 0){
            sel.standard_selector = product_selector.find('small.rt:eq('+ i +')');
            var standard_price = standard_selector.attr('data');
        }
        if(i == 1){
            sel.business_selector = product_selector.find('small.rt:eq('+ i +')');
            var business_price = business_selector.attr('data');
        }
        if(i == 2){
            sel.professional_selector = product_selector.find('small.rt:eq('+ i +')');
            var professional_price = professional_selector.attr('data');
        }
    }
    return(sel);
}

var selectors = update_prices(xxx);
// access selectors.standard_selector, selectors.business_selector, selectors.profession_selector here