asked on

JavaScript example, whats wrong here?

<div id="one"></div>
<div id="two"></div>
<div id="three"></div>

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var customer = new function(name) {
    this.name = name;
    $('#one').html('Inside: ' + name);
    return {
        getName: function() {
            return name;
        },
        setName: function(newName) {
            name = newName;
        }
    };
}('Olaf');
customer.setName('Albert');
$('#two').html('Outside-1: ' + customer.getName());
$('#three').html('Outside-2: ' + customer.name)

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Output:

Inside: Olaf
Outside-1: Albert
Outside-2: undefined

Why is the last output undefined? Didn't I set a property called name with a value?

Jerry Miller

I would use a different identifier from 'name', there may be some conflict using multiple instances of name since it is a keyword. I think that you were setting this.name to itself and that was producing your undefined error.

var customer = new function(n) {
    this.name = n;
    $('#one').html('Inside: ' + n);
    return {
        getName: function() {
            return n;
        },
        setName: function(newName) {
            n = newName;
        }
    };
}('Olaf');
customer.setName('Albert');
$('#two').html('Outside-1: ' + customer.getName());
$('#three').html('Outside-2: ' + customer.name)

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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

leakim971

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itnifl

ASKER

If I do this customer.name also works:

var customer = new function(n) {
    this.name = n;
    $('#one').html('Inside: ' + n);
}('Olaf');

$('#three').html('Outside-2: ' + customer.name)

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But if I choose to return what attributes are available like in the question, then this.name = n; will not set an attribute named name. Does it get overwritten by the return statement or what happens to it?