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Lioness100
Lioness100

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The obscure `Function#length` property!

Today I found out about another super cool Javascript feature that I'll never use in my life, and I'm here to share it with you! Introducing Function.prototype.length.

// there are 2 expected arguments
function foo(bar, baz) {
  // ...
}

foo.length; // so 2 is outputted
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It's as simple as that! The length property exposes the amount of arguments expected by the function in question.

Specifications

Rest parameters are not included in the final count!

function foo(bar, ...baz) {
  // ...
}

foo.length; // 1 - rest parameters are not counted
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Also, only parameters before a parameter with a default value are counted.

function foo(bar, baz = true, foobar) {
  // ...
}

foo.length; // 1 - only parameters before one with a default value
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What's the difference between arguments.length and Function#length?

As I described above, Function#length will show how many parameters are expected in a function. However, arguments.length (when used inside the function) will show how many were actually passed, regardless of whether they were expected.

function foo(bar, baz) {
  return arguments.length;
}

foo.length; // 2 - expects `bar` and `baz`
foo(1, 2, 3, 4, 5); // 5 - five arguments were actually passed
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Use Cases

You tell me! I have no idea 🤣


I hope you learned a bit about the Function#length property! If you have any questions, corrections, or addons, I would love to hear them. Peace ✌

Top comments (9)

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️ • Edited

Not that obscure - I was using it in my project just last week!

I had two different functions to run for attaching methods to objects - one for methods that took arguments, another for methods that didn't. The Function length property was very useful to create a convenience function to automatically pick the correct method adder.

It is also used in the commonly used function that will curry the passed function:

function curry(func) {

  return function curried(...args) {
    if (args.length >= func.length) {
      return func.apply(this, args);
    } else {
      return function(...args2) {
        return curried.apply(this, args.concat(args2));
      }
    }
  };

}
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lioness100 profile image
Lioness100

Oooh, genius! (And the project that you linked is super cool too!)

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jcubic profile image
Jakub T. Jankiewicz

This is very useful and not that obscure, you can use it for curry function. Or any meta/functional programming.

Here is another example of curry function with ES5:

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foxy4096 profile image
Foxy4096

Wow, I also have no idea where to use this, maybe you can use to find out the no. of agrs taken by a builtin function, who knows, or if you are lazy or crazy then you can use it.
:)

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lioness100 profile image
Lioness100

As someone who is both lazy and crazy, I'm sure I'll find some use eventually :)

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val_baca profile image
Valentin Baca

"amount of arguments expected by the function in question."

aka the "arity" of the function

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lioness100 profile image
Lioness100

Oh, I haven't heard that before! TIL :)

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iamandrewluca profile image
Andrei L

Can be used for currying javascript.info/currying-partials

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lioness100 profile image
Lioness100

Ah, very cool!