What's the difference between named functions and arrow functions in JavaScript?

Posted by ketralnis@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 12 comments

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saantonandre@reddit

Fuck me, an original looking blog that does not look the same as every other gpt spam blogs, and somehow is about programming??? in this econ

How do you manage

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butt_fun@reddit

This sub went to shit after the mods left a few years ago

This type of post would have historically been removed because it's Fisher Price My First JavaScript Knowledge and we got about five posts a month about this topic. Whereas today, it's one of the better posts

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geowarin@reddit

Unless it is a one-liner, arrow function are not more concise than function declaration:

function myFunc() {
}

const myFunc = () => {
}

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butt_fun@reddit

Unless it's a one-liner

I think you mean "unless it's anonymous"

Naming it is the part that's longer with arrow function than "normal" functions

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Smooth_Detective@reddit

Arrows are bit more functional in what they convey as well. If you're assigning something to a variable (be that a function) you likely intend to pass it someplace else as opposed to a standard function which is intended to be called.

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ejfrodo@reddit

This is all technically correct info but this stuck out as kind of an odd stance to take

The main difference between an arrow function and the other two is that it’s more concise. We don’t have that verbose function keyword, just two characters that look like an arrow.

I think most would agree that the main difference is they don't create their own lexical scope and inherit their this context from the scope they're defined in. That and they can't be used with the new operator. The syntax is more just a means to an end.

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zhivago@reddit

Arrow functions create their own lexical scope.

this isn't inherited, but rather is bound into the lexical closure of the arrow function.

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damnNamesAreTaken@reddit

So, I'm asking this as someone who rarely touches JavaScript but occasionally had to read/write a bit. After reading this article I'm still left with the question of, other than being more compact, what is the advantage of the arrow style functions? To put it another way, why wouldn't I just use the other style everywhere?

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They're hoisted, so ordering doesn't matter (functions can be called before they're declared)

Multiline functions require fewer total characters

Advantages of arrow functions:

More sane when it comes to this.

One-liners are shorter.

Other than that there's basically no difference and just personal preference.

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gareththegeek@reddit

The difference is this