How to access function inside of function?

Question

today my question is asking how I would access a function inside a function. So, for example, I have a button, and if I click it, it would alert. The thing is, if you have a function surrounding the function, the inside function with the alert would not alert.

Here's an example:

html:

<button onclick="doStuff()">Alert</button>

js:

function nothing() {

var doStuff = function() {
    alert("This worked!")
}

}

so the doStuff() function would not work. Can someone help me find a way to access it?

Answer 1

@Joseph the Dreamer is ultimately correct, but if you were dead set on calling a function that's nested in another function you could use an OOP approach.

Create a javascript "class" object and scope your function to "this":

function Nothing() {
    this.doStuff = function() {
        alert("works");
    }
}

• Next you add an id to your button,
• along with a click event listener

Then, inside your click event you can call doStuff within the Nothing "Class" function like this:

var object = new Nothing();
object.doStuff();

https://jsfiddle.net/me7fek5f/

Answer 2

You can't. That's because it's enclosed in a scope that you can't really access globally. The only way you can access it is to expose it somewhere outside nothing.