Question

There is strange pattern in jQuery:

var jQuery = (function() {

// Define a local copy of jQuery
var jQuery = function( selector, context ) {
 ...
return jQuery;

})();

What is the practical reason for this? Why not just expose the inner jQuery function? Is it only for name clashes in the inner jQuery and outer jQuery since both are in closures.

Answer 1

jQuery.noConflict(true) removes the global name for jQuery. However, it would be impossible to program the rest of the jQuery library without using some name for the object, so a local, non-exposed name needs to be used. For convenience, they redefine jQuery as a variable in the scope of the anonymous function.