Question

I’m a little confused with what’s going on with a common pattern I keep seeing. It usually looks like this.

(function( w ){
    w.functionName = function(){

      // Function stuff, blah blah blah

    };
  }( this ));

Another common one I see looks like:

(function( $ ){
    $.fn.functionName = function(){

    // Function stuff, blah blah blah

    };
}( jQuery ));

I’m some what familiar with anonymous functions, though I’m curious, what is w, and what is it being used for?

What is the reason for this/jquery at the end of the anonymous function.

Thanks for all the feedback on this! I appreciated all the responses.

Answer 1

w is just being the formal name of parameter of a function(normal thing, and it this example, actual parameter is this or jQuery). I don’t know why jQuery in this given example is doing thing, probably it is considered as kind of nice initialization.

Example:

var obj={'x':1};
console.log(obj.x);//1

(function(p){
    p.x=5;
})(obj);

console.log(obj.x);//5