What underlies this JavaScript idiom: var self = this?

I saw the following in the source for WebKit HTML 5 SQL Storage Notes Demo:

function Note() {
  var self = this;

  var note = document.createElement('div');
  note.className = 'note';
  note.addEventListener('mousedown', function(e) { return self.onMouseDown(e) }, false);
  note.addEventListener('click', function() { return self.onNoteClick() }, false);
  this.note = note;
  // ...
}

The author uses self in some places (the function body) and this in other places (the bodies of functions defined in the argument list of methods). What's going on? Now that I've noticed it once, will I start seeing it everywhere?

Solution 1:

See this article on alistapart.com. (Ed: The article has been updated since originally linked)

self is being used to maintain a reference to the original this even as the context is changing. It's a technique often used in event handlers (especially in closures).

Edit: Note that using self is now discouraged as window.self exists and has the potential to cause errors if you are not careful.

What you call the variable doesn't particularly matter. var that = this; is fine, but there's nothing magic about the name.

Functions declared inside a context (e.g. callbacks, closures) will have access to the variables/function declared in the same scope or above.

For example, a simple event callback:

function MyConstructor(options) {
  let that = this;

  this.someprop = options.someprop || 'defaultprop';

  document.addEventListener('click', (event) => {
    alert(that.someprop);
  });
}

new MyConstructor({
  someprop: "Hello World"
});

Solution 2:

I think the variable name 'self' should not be used this way anymore, since modern browsers provide a global variable self pointing to the global object of either a normal window or a WebWorker.

To avoid confusion and potential conflicts, you can write var thiz = this or var that = this instead.

Solution 3:

Yes, you'll see it everywhere. It's often that = this;.

See how self is used inside functions called by events? Those would have their own context, so self is used to hold the this that came into Note().

The reason self is still available to the functions, even though they can only execute after the Note() function has finished executing, is that inner functions get the context of the outer function due to closure.

Solution 4:

It should also be noted there is an alternative Proxy pattern for maintaining a reference to the original this in a callback if you dislike the var self = this idiom.

As a function can be called with a given context by using function.apply or function.call, you can write a wrapper that returns a function that calls your function with apply or call using the given context. See jQuery's proxy function for an implementation of this pattern. Here is an example of using it:

var wrappedFunc = $.proxy(this.myFunc, this);

wrappedFunc can then be called and will have your version of this as the context.