Question

If I call an if statement as such:

if(someRandomFunction()){
    //do stuff
}

If the called function returns true but after various invoked delays and timed animations, does this cause the if statement to fail?

Answer 1

When you say “various invoked delays and timed animations”, I presume you are talking about calls to window.setTimeout() and such.

When a function registers a delayed event like this, the function continues executing after registering the event, and the event fires later, usually after the registering function has finished executing.

The things that get executed later are also functions. They can return values, but since those functions are actually called by the browser (when it knows it is time for them to be called), the values get returned to the browser. In the case of setTimeout() and setInterval() at least, the return value is ignored.

When you call a function, you can (in javascript at least) count on that function to be the one that returns the value to you.