Curly braces inside JavaScript arguments for functions

Question

What do the curly braces surrounding JavaScript arguments for functions do?

var port = chrome.extension.connect({name: "testing"});
port.postMessage({found: (count != undefined)});

Answer 1

A second possible answer has arisen since this question was asked. Javascript ES6 introduced Destructuring Assignment.

var x = function({ foo }) {    console.log(foo) }  var y = {   bar: "hello",   foo: "Good bye" }  x(y)   Result: "Good bye" 

Answer 2

The curly braces denote an object literal. It is a way of sending key/value pairs of data.

So this:

var obj = {name: "testing"}; 

Is used like this to access the data.

obj.name; // gives you "testing" 

You can give the object several comma separated key/value pairs, as long as the keys are unique.

var obj = {name: "testing",            another: "some other value",            "a-key": "needed quotes because of the hyphen"           }; 

You can also use square brackets to access the properties of the object.

This would be required in the case of the "a-key".

obj["a-key"] // gives you "needed quotes because of the hyphen" 

Using the square brackets, you can access a value using a property name stored in a variable.

var some_variable = "name";  obj[ some_variable ] // gives you "testing" 

Answer 3

Curly braces in javascript are used as shorthand to create objects. For example:

// Create an object with a key "name" initialized to the value "testing"
var test = { name : "testing" };
alert(test.name); // alerts "testing"

Check out Douglas Crockford's JavaScript Survey for more detail.