Question

Recently i found myself attaching function arguments to a variable inside the function scope so that i was not referencing the argument every time it was used.

Is there any benefit to this practice?

For example:

function populateResultCount(count){
    var count = count;
    return $('.resultCounter').text(count);     
};

Could easily be re-written like so:

function populateResultCount(count){
    return $('.resultCounter').text(count);     
};

And would still function correctly.

Answer 1

If you’re not using the argument that’s passed in, there is no difference. In your first example, you can potentially confuse future maintainers because of var count = count, i.e., you’re declaring a variable that has the same name as the argument, and that isn’t a best practise.

So, if you can, use your second form. Its intent is clearer and there is no room for confusion.