'this' keyword, not clear

Question

I get confused about 'this' keyword in the following codes, there are two 'this':

var Foo = function(string){
  this.name=string // 1st-this
}

Foo.prototype.get_name = function(){
  return this.name // 2nd-this
}

var myFoo = new Foo('John')

the_name=myFoo.get_name()

'the_name' is equal to 'John', the prototype method get the name by return this.name. But can anyone explain to me the 1st-this and 2nd-this, what do they stand for?

Answer 1

In Javascript, the value of this is dependent on the way you call the function.

There are 5 ways to call a function in JS, and they all have effect on this:

1. new Foo(); <= here, you’re creating a new object, and this will reflect that new object
2. Foo(); <= here, you're calling the function as-is, and this will be the global object(!)
3. var obj = { foo: Foo };
obj.foo(); <= here, you're calling the function as a method of obj; this will be obj
4. Foo.call(thisObject, arg1, arg2); <= here, you can specify the value of this in the first argument
5. Foo.apply(thisObject, [args]); <= here, you can specify the value of this in the first argument

In 4 and 5, the difference between call and apply is that with call, you need to pass all the arguments separately, whereas with apply, you can pass an array containing all the arguments.

Note that in my example 2 above, the function should have been called foo instead of Foo. Since it’s impossible to know off-hand whether a function is supposed to be called with new or not, the consensus is to start the function name with a capital letter if it’s a constructor (and should be used with new); otherwise, it should start with lowercase.

Answer 2

this link make you understand : The this keyword

function doSomething() {
   this.style.color = '#cc0000';
}

In JavaScript this always refers to the “owner” of the function we're executing, or rather, to the object that a function is a method of. When we define our faithful function doSomething() in a page, its owner is the page, or rather, the window object (or global object) of JavaScript. An onclick property, though, is owned by the HTML element it belongs to.

Answer 3

When you use the new keyword this is the instance object that you are creating.

var foo = new Bar();

i.e. the instance of Bar being assigned to foo

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When you don't, this is the object on which the method you are calling lives.

var baz = foo.thing();
var boz = thing();

i.e. foo in the first example and window in the second (window is the default object).

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You can also fritz with it using apply

var baz = foo.thing.apply(bar);

Here this (still inside the thing method) is bar)