Calling dynamic function with dynamic number of parameters [duplicate]

Question

Use the apply method of a function:-

function mainfunc (func){
    window[func].apply(null, Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1));
} 

Edit: It occurs to me that this would be much more useful with a slight tweak:-

function mainfunc (func){
    this[func].apply(this, Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1));
} 

This will work outside of the browser (this defaults to the global space). The use of call on mainfunc would also work:-

function target(a) {
    alert(a)
}

var o = {
    suffix: " World",
    target: function(s) { alert(s + this.suffix); }
};

mainfunc("target", "Hello");

mainfunc.call(o, "target", "Hello");

Your code only works for global functions, ie. members of the window object. To use it with arbitrary functions, pass the function itself instead of its name as a string:

function dispatch(fn, args) {
    fn = (typeof fn == "function") ? fn : window[fn];  // Allow fn to be a function object or the name of a global function
    return fn.apply(this, args || []);  // args is optional, use an empty array by default
}

function f1() {}

function f2() {
    var f = function() {};
    dispatch(f, [1, 2, 3]);
}

dispatch(f1, ["foobar"]);
dispatch("f1", ["foobar"]);

f2();  // calls inner-function "f" in "f2"
dispatch("f", [1, 2, 3]);  // doesn't work since "f" is local in "f2"

You could use .apply()

You need to specify a this... I guess you could use the this within mainfunc.

function mainfunc (func)
{
    var args = new Array();
    for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++)
        args.push(arguments[i]);

    window[func].apply(this, args);
}

Here's what you need:

function mainfunc (){
    window[Array.prototype.shift.call(arguments)].apply(null, arguments);
}

The first argument is used as the function name and all of the remaining ones are used as arguments to the called function...

We're able to use the shift method to return and then delete the first value from the arguments array. Note that we've called it from the Array prototype since, strictly speaking, 'arguments' is not a real array and so doesn't inherit the shift method like a regular array would.

---

You can also call the shift method like this:

[].shift.call(arguments);