Javascript: How to clear a non-global (closured) setTimeout?

Question

I'm trying to be a good citizen and keep as much out of the global scope as possible. Is there a way to access setTimeout variables that are not in the global scope?

So that, in this example how would someone cancel 'timer'?

myObject.timedAction = (function(){
    var timer;
        return function(){
            // do stuff

            // then wait & repeat       
            timer = setTimeout(myObject.timedAction,1000);
        };
})();

I've tried clearTimeout(myObject.timedAction.timer,1000); (without success), and not sure what else to try.

Answer 1

You can't unless you have a reference to timer, which you don't because you're declaring it as a variable in a scope. You can do something like:

myObject.timedAction = (function(){
    return function(){
        // do stuff

        // then wait & repeat       
        myObject.timedAction.timer = setTimeout(myObject.timedAction,1000);
    };
})();

clearTimeout(myObject.timedAction.timer);

Note that the above code will only ever allow ONE timer. If you need references to more than one timer, it needs to be adjusted.