Making Functions with hitch and partial

The dojo/_base/lang resource contains helpful methods for working with functions in JavaScript. In this tutorial, you'll learn the basics of the Function object—and how to bind contexts to functions using lang.hitch. From there, you'll learn how to bind specific arguments to a function using lang.partial, and how lang.hitch can combine the two operations.

Getting Started

For the purposes of this tutorial, we will assume that you have basic knowledge of Dojo Toolkit constructs such as dojo/query and other language-based helper functions, such as Dojo's Array helpers.

Before we can understand how and when to use lang.hitch and lang.partial, we must first understand the problems they solve. One of the most misunderstood concepts in JavaScript is embodied in the simple, frequently-asked question, "What is this"? Normally, in object-oriented programming, when one of an object's methods is invoked, we expect 'this' to be that object. The answer is more subtle in JavaScript however; to get firmly to grips with it we need to understand execution contexts.

Execution Contexts in JavaScript

Whenever a function is invoked in JavaScript, an execution context is created (see this article from Tuenti for some gruesome details). This context is created with the following process:

• The arguments object is created;
• The function's scope is created;
• Variables for the function are instantiated;
• The this property (for the context itself) is created.

The this property is where most developers get confused; it is a reference to the object that is considered the context (or scope) of the function's invocation. Understanding this (no pun intended) is the key to understanding how JavaScript works—because in JavaScript, the actual context in which a function is executed is determined when the function is invoked.

Let's take a common example. Say we have an object, and one of the methods in that object is intended to be used as an event handler for a number of nodes in a document. We might define it like so:

// Require the query resource, and wait until the DOM is ready
require(["dojo/query", "dojo/domReady!"],
	function(query) {

		var myObject = {
			foo: "bar",
			myHandler: function(evt){
				//	this is very contrived but will do.
				alert("The value of 'foo' is " + this.foo);
			}
		};

		//	later on in the script:
		query(".myNodes").forEach(function(node){
			node.onclick = myObject.myHandler;
		});

});

View Demo

When someone clicks on any node with the CSS class "myNodes", you might expect the above function definition to show a JavaScript alert box saying "The value of 'foo' is bar"; however, because of the way we attached the handler reference to each node we'll instead get The value of 'foo' is undefined. The reason why is because myObject.myHandler is being executed in the context of the node we attached it to, and NOT in the context of myObject. In other words, the JavaScript interpreter thinks that the this keyword in our handler function refers to node we set the reference to, and not myObject.

Switching execution contexts with .apply and .call

Because of the ability for JavaScript to define execution contexts when a function is invoked, the language provides a way of changing contexts—i.e., the meaning of this—on the fly through Function.apply and Function.call. Simply put, both methods allow you to execute a function within a passed object as its context. For example, if we wanted to ensure that our contrived handler above was executed in the context of myObject, we'd wrap our reference using the Function.call method, like so:

query(".myNodes").forEach(function(node){
	node.onclick = function(evt){
		myObject.myHandler.call(myObject, evt);
	};
});

View Demo

Now that we've reviewed the basics of execution context in JavaScript, let's see how the Dojo Toolkit simplifies this process through lang.hitch.

Binding execution context with lang.hitch

The Dojo Toolkit provides a way of simplifying context binding with functions via the workhorse lang.hitch. To put it simply, lang.hitch creates a new Function object that is bound (or hitched, hence the name) to a specific context, which you can then invoke safely—without ever worrying if the context has changed. Using lang.hitch is simple:

// `foo` is intentionally global
var foo = "bar";
require(["dojo/_base/lang"],
	function(lang) {

		var myFunction = function(){
			return this.foo;
		};
		var myObject = { foo: "baz" };

		// later on in your application
		var boundFunction = lang.hitch(myObject, myFunction);

		// the first value will be "bar", the second will be "baz";
		// the third will still be "bar".
		myFunction();		// "bar"
		boundFunction();	// "baz"
		myFunction();		// "bar"

});

View Demo

As you can see, lang.hitch ensures that a particular function—bound to a specific execution context—will always be invoked without fear of having that context be switched at run-time.

The arguments object

Remember when we explained the process by which an execution context is created? The very first step is to create the arguments object. This object is an Array-like object, with an ordered list of values that have been passed to a function. In addition, in the third step of creating a context all variables for the function are created—including any named arguments, so that these values can be accessed directly by name as if they were just another variable in the function body.

Keep in mind that the arguments object is not a true Array object in JavaScript; though it shares some of the same aspects (such as members accessible via numbers and a length property), it is considered read-only—which means that none of the other Array methods (such as Array.prototype.slice) are available.

When a function is defined, the signature of the function becomes fixed. One cannot add or remove named arguments without redefining the function itself. This can become a problem at times, particularly when you are in need of matching a function signature (say, for a pre-defined handler in a library such as the Dojo Toolkit) without actually copying or rewriting the original function. The Dojo Toolkit provides a simple way of accomplishing this through the method lang.partial.

Changing function signatures with lang.partial

A problem a developer might face is having a function with multiple arguments being used where a smaller set of arguments is required. For example, say we have a function that takes 4 arguments, like so (we'll be using dojo/data for the example):

var putValue = function(store, item, attr, value){
	return store.setValue(item, attr, value);
}

...but somewhere else in your application, a different developer (or a library) has written a set of objects that will call a similar handler with only 3 arguments:

someObject.setValueHandler = function(item, attr, value){
	//	placeholder function to be overridden
};

With lang.partial, you can create a new (unbound) function with preset values for arguments (or bound arguments). To complete our example above, we'd want to "preset" the store argument with a reference to a specific store and then set someObject.setValueHandler to a reference of our partial function (hence the name), like so:

// assuming we have a dojo/data store called "myStore"

// our function
var putValue = function(store, item, attr, value){
	return store.setValue(item, attr, value);
}

// ...
// their function signature
someObject.setValueHandler = function(item, attr, value){
	//	placeholder function to be overridden
};

// ...
// our solution using lang.partial
someObject.setValueHandler = lang.partial(putValue, myStore);

// ...
// somewhere in the application when setValueHandler is invoked,
// our putValue function will already have the "store" arg
// set to a reference to "myStore"
someObject.setValueHandler(someItem, "foo", "bar");

View Demo

The above can be confusing, so let's break down what is happening:

1. We define our putValue function to take 4 arguments;
2. We find out that the setValueHandler was only designed to take 3 arguments, and (for the sake of the example) we cannot change that;
3. We create a new function out of putValue that has the first argument—store—preset to be myStore;
4. The new partial function is then called by other mechanisms with the 3 arguments passed, but our partial function already has myStore set to be the first argument, no matter what.

An important thing to note is that unlike lang.hitch, lang.partial does not preset the execution context for the returned partial function. In other words, the meaning of the this keyword can change, depending on how you've used the new partial function.

One interesting technique you could do with lang.partial, should you be so inclined, is to preset a reference to an object you would like access to beforehand so that you get the best of both worlds—by letting the execution context change but having a bound reference via the function's arguments.

Getting the best of hitch and partial together

What if you wanted the best of what hitch does (forcing an execution context) with the best of what partial does (presetting arguments)? Well, it turns out that lang.hitch was designed to do just that—you can include any number of values after the context and method arguments, and lang.hitch will assemble the new function with both a bound context and preset arguments. Let's take a similar example to the above:

someObject.setValueHandler = lang.hitch(someObject, putValue, myStore);

// ...
// later on in the application, the setHandler is invoked
// again--this time in the context of someObject
someObject.setValueHandler(someItem, "foo", "bar");

hitch and partial are a gateway to a technique known as functional programming; the Dojo Toolkit offers a lot more functional programming techniques through the dojox/lang/functional namespace, which we encourage you to take a look at.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we've reviewed the JavaScript Function object—including the invocation process when a function is called. We then introduced lang.hitch, which allows you to bind a function to a specific execution context. From there, we learned how to bind arguments to a function using lang.partial—and then showed how you can bind both context and arguments using lang.hitch.

lang.hitch is particularly useful with event-driven programming techniques (i.e. callback-based programming), as it allows you to preset the execution context of a function without fear of changing the meaning of the this keyword.

Don't forget—if you ever need any help with the Dojo Toolkit, you can always drop into the #dojo IRC channel on irc.freenode.net. Don't forget our motto for the channel: Don't Ask To Ask, Just Ask®!