Question

I’m having a real problem with JavaScript scope in IE 9.

This is inside the body of my document (yes, I realize script should go in the head for proper HTML, but I’ve never had it break a script before). The script is in the body because I don’t want to mess with a shared header page for a script that is only relevant for this page:

<script type="text/javascript">
function googleMapsQuery(accountNum) {
    // function code is here (omitted for brevity)
}
</script>

This is inside a td block inside a tr block inside a tbody block inside a table block inside a form block inside the body:

<button id="google-422111" onclick="googleMapsQuery(422111)" type="button">Google This!</button>

I even moved the script block above the form just in case the order of the script function declaration was relevant (it’s not).

The script works flawlessly in FireFox and Chrome, but in IE 9 (with or without compatibility view on), I get this error:

SCRIPT5007: The value of the property ‘googleMapsQuery’ is null or undefined, not a Function object

I studied JavaScript scope, and I cannot figure out any reason why IE thinks that ‘googleMapsQuery’ is a property, and why it is undefined. It’s a function, and I defined it!

Answer 1

I found the answer, and in spite of what I reported, it was NOT browser specific. The bug was in my function code, and would have occurred in any browser. It boils down to this. I had two lines in my code that were FireFox/FireBug specific. They used console.log. In IE, they threw an error, so I commented them out (or so I thought). I did a crappy job commenting them out, and broke the bracketing in my function.

Original Code (with console.log in it):

if (sxti.length <= 50) console.log('sxti=' + sxti);
if (sxph.length <= 50) console.log('sxph=' + sxph);

Broken Code (misplaced brackets inside comments):

if (sxti.length <= 50) { //console.log('sxti=' + sxti); }
if (sxph.length <= 50) { //console.log('sxph=' + sxph); }

Fixed Code (fixed brackets outside comments):

if (sxti.length <= 50) { }//console.log('sxti=' + sxti);
if (sxph.length <= 50) { }//console.log('sxph=' + sxph);

So, it was my own sloppy coding. The function really wasn’t defined, because a syntax error kept it from being closed.

Oh well, live and learn. 😉