javascript - shortcut for calling a function at the same time it is defined

Question

to call a function at the same time it's defined, i had been using:

var newfunc = function() {
    alert('hi');
};
newfunc();

is the following the correct way of combining these 2:

var newfunc = function() {
    alert('hi');
}();

Answer 1

There could be a number of reasons you wish to do this. I'm not sure what yours are, but let me introduce a couple of favourite patterns:

Pattern #1: A singleton. The function is executed and then becomes a singleton object for use by other components of your code.

var singletonObject = new function() {

    // example private variables and functions
    var variable1 = {};
    var variable2 = {};
    var privateFunction = function() { 
    };

    // example public functions
    this.getData = function() { 
        return privateFunction(variable1, variable2);
    };

    // example initialisation code that will only run once
    variable1.isInitialised = true;
};

Pattern #2: Self-executing anonymous function ... handy for sooo many reasons!

// Declare an anonymous function body. 
// Wrap it in parenthesis to make it an "expression.
// Execute it by adding "();"
(function(){})();

And here's an example that also creates a namespace for your objects. I'm using "NS" as an example namespace:

// declare the anonymous function, this time passing in some parameters
(function($, NS) {

    // do whatever you like here

   // execute the function, passing in the required parameters. 
   // note that the "NS" namespace is created if it doesn't already exist
})(jQuery, (window.NS = window.NS || {}));

You can also set the context of a self-executing function by using .call or .apply instead of the usual parenthesis, like this:

(function($){
    // 'this' now refers to the window.NS object

}).call(window.NS = window.NS || {}, jQuery);

or

(function($){
    // 'this' now refers to the window.NS object

}).apply(window.NS = window.NS || {}, [jQuery]);

Answer 2

var newfunc = function f() {
    alert("hi!");
    return f;
}();

Having a named function expressions allows the function to recursively call itself or, in this case, return itself. This function will always return itself, however, which might be an annoyance.