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JavaScript JavaScript Loops, Arrays and Objects Simplify Repetitive Tasks with Loops A Closer Look at Loop Conditions

Morgan Walstrom
Morgan Walstrom
4,683 Points

Where is the function being invoked?

var upper = 10000; var randomNumber = getRandomNumber(upper); var guess; var attempts = 0;

function getRandomNumber(upper) { return Math.floor( Math.random() * upper ) + 1; }

while( guess !== randomNumber ){ guess = getRandomNumber( upper ); attempts += 1; } document.write("<p>The random number was: " + randomNumber + "</p>"); document.write("<p>It took the computer " + attempts + " attempts to get it right.</p>");

2 Answers

Aakash Srivastav
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.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Aakash Srivastav
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 11,638 Points

Morgan Walstrom , you can see in 2nd line of your code i,e :

var upper = 10000;
var randomNumber = getRandomNumber(upper);      // Function getting invoked here
var guess;
var attempts = 0;

function getRandomNumber(upper) {
  return Math.floor(Math.random() * upper) + 1;
}

while (guess !== randomNumber) {
  guess = getRandomNumber(upper);
  attempts += 1;
}
document.write("<p>The random number was: " + randomNumber + "</p>");
document.write("<p>It took the computer " + attempts + " attempts to get it right.</p>");

So , you can see in 2nd line , function is getting invoked and the retured value gets stored into the variable randomNumber.
Actually this is called Hoisting .
In JavaScript , both functions declaration and function definition get hoisted.
In other words , JavaScript interpreter allows yo to use the function before the point at which it was declared in the source code. Hope it help :)

Morgan Walstrom
Morgan Walstrom
4,683 Points

I thought so, I just have never invoked a function that was being stored in a variable. var upper = 10000; var randomNumber = getRandomNumber(upper);
so on line 2 is the parameter the variable on line one? upper is getting passed in? cool way to do it just new to me!

Aakash Srivastav
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Aakash Srivastav
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 11,638 Points

Actually , the function is not stored in a variable . What's going on is -
We are calling the function first , then storing it's value in a variable . So ,it's the value that gets stored not the function itself. Remember ,whenever a function returns a value , we want to store that value in some variable so that we can use that value.
Same thing is going on here , function is returning a value and we are so storing that value in a variable in line 2.

Morgan Walstrom
Morgan Walstrom
4,683 Points

Thanks that makes a lot of sense!

Ivy Garrenton
Ivy Garrenton
3,772 Points

So we can call a function before the function is written in the script?

We can call a function before it is declared yes, that's hoisting as Aakash said above, although we can call a function we can't call a function expression. You should avoid hoisting as much as possible. Things could get really complicated really fast.