Javascript: Extend a Function

Solution 1:

With a wider view of what you're actually trying to do and the context in which you're doing it, I'm sure we could give you a better answer than the literal answer to your question.

But here's a literal answer:

If you're assigning these functions to some property somewhere, you can wrap the original function and put your replacement on the property instead:

// Original code in main.js
var theProperty = init;

function init(){
     doSomething();
}

// Extending it by replacing and wrapping, in extended.js
theProperty = (function(old) {
    function extendsInit() {
        old();
        doSomething();
    }

    return extendsInit;
})(theProperty);

If your functions aren't already on an object, you'd probably want to put them there to facilitate the above. For instance:

// In main.js
var MyLibrary = {
    init: function init() {
    }
};

// In extended.js
(function() {
    var oldInit = MyLibrary.init;
    MyLibrary.init = extendedInit;
    function extendedInit() {
        oldInit.call(MyLibrary); // Use #call in case `init` uses `this`
        doSomething();
    }
})();

But there are better ways to do that. Like for instance, providing a means of registering init functions.

// In main.js
var MyLibrary = (function() {
    var initFunctions = [];
    return {
        init: function init() {
            var fns = initFunctions;
            initFunctions = undefined;
            for (var index = 0; index < fns.length; ++index) {
                try { fns[index](); } catch (e) { }
            }
        },
        addInitFunction: function addInitFunction(fn) {
            if (initFunctions) {
                // Init hasn't run yet, remember it
                initFunctions.push(fn);
            } else {
                // `init` has already run, call it almost immediately
                // but *asynchronously* (so the caller never sees the
                // call synchronously)
                setTimeout(fn, 0);
            }
        }
    };
})();

Here in 2020 (or really any time after ~2016), that can be written a bit more compactly:

// In main.js
const MyLibrary = (() => {
    let initFunctions = [];
    return {
        init() {
            const fns = initFunctions;
            initFunctions = undefined;
            for (const fn of fns) {
                try { fn(); } catch (e) { }
            }
        },
        addInitFunction(fn) {
            if (initFunctions) {
                // Init hasn't run yet, remember it
                initFunctions.push(fn);
            } else {
                // `init` has already run, call it almost immediately
                // but *asynchronously* (so the caller never sees the
                // call synchronously)
                setTimeout(fn, 0);
                // Or: `Promise.resolve().then(() => fn());`
                // (Not `.then(fn)` just to avoid passing it an argument)
            }
        }
    };
})();

Solution 2:

There are several ways to go about this, it depends what your purpose is, if you just want to execute the function as well and in the same context, you can use .apply():

function init(){
  doSomething();
}
function myFunc(){
  init.apply(this, arguments);
  doSomethingHereToo();
}

If you want to replace it with a newer init, it'd look like this:

function init(){
  doSomething();
}
//anytime later
var old_init = init;
init = function() {
  old_init.apply(this, arguments);
  doSomethingHereToo();
};

Solution 3:

The other methods are great but they don't preserve any prototype functions attached to init. To get around that you can do the following (inspired by the post from Nick Craver).

(function () {
    var old_prototype = init.prototype;
    var old_init = init;
    init = function () {
        old_init.apply(this, arguments);
        // Do something extra
    };
    init.prototype = old_prototype;
}) ();

Solution 4:

Another option could be:

var initial = function() {
    console.log( 'initial function!' );
}

var iWantToExecuteThisOneToo = function () {
    console.log( 'the other function that i wanted to execute!' );
}

function extendFunction( oldOne, newOne ) {
    return (function() {
        oldOne();
        newOne();
    })();
}

var extendedFunction = extendFunction( initial, iWantToExecuteThisOneToo );