Defining JavaScript functions inside vs. outside of a class

Question

I'm trying to figure out if there's any different when defining functions inside or outside of a class in JavaScript. Why would I choose to do it one way over the other? (Notice my getName [inside class] and getName2 [outside of class]).

class TestClass {
    constructor(myName) {
        this.name = myName;
    }

    getName() {
        return this.name;
    }
}

TestClass.getName2 = function() {
    //won't actually print the name variable set since not associated with an instance of the class?
    console.log(this.name);
};

var test = new TestClass("Joe");

console.log(test.getName());

///////////////

TestClass.getName2();

Output:

Joe
TestClass

The only difference I can really see so far through my testing here is that I cannot access this.name within my getName2 since I believe it's not associated with any instance of the TestClass. So my getName2 is almost like a static class function where it's not associated with an instance of the class?? Please help me clarify this and why I would choose to implement a function one way over the other.

Answer 1

From the MDN doc:

JavaScript classes, introduced in ECMAScript 2015, are primarily syntactical sugar over JavaScript's existing prototype-based inheritance. The class syntax does not introduce a new object-oriented inheritance model to JavaScript.

So this...

class TestClass {
  constructor(myName) {
    this.name = myName;
  }

  getName() {
    return this.name;
  }

  static getName2() {
    return 'getName2 result';
  }
}

...is exactly equivalent to this:

const TestClass = function(myName) {
  this.name = myName;
}

TestClass.prototype.getName = function() {
  return this.name;
}

TestClass.getName2 = function() {
  return 'getName2 result';
}

---

So whether you use the older prototype syntax or the newer ES6 class syntax is just a matter of personal preference, and as you suspected, defining methods directly on a class is exactly equivalent to creating a static class method.