Book Image

JavaScript from Beginner to Professional

By : Laurence Lars Svekis, Maaike van Putten, Codestars By Rob Percival
4 (5)
Book Image

JavaScript from Beginner to Professional

4 (5)
By: Laurence Lars Svekis, Maaike van Putten, Codestars By Rob Percival

Overview of this book

This book demonstrates the capabilities of JavaScript for web application development by combining theoretical learning with code exercises and fun projects that you can challenge yourself with. The guiding principle of the book is to show how straightforward JavaScript techniques can be used to make web apps ranging from dynamic websites to simple browser-based games. JavaScript from Beginner to Professional focuses on key programming concepts and Document Object Model manipulations that are used to solve common problems in professional web applications. These include data validation, manipulating the appearance of web pages, working with asynchronous and concurrent code. The book uses project-based learning to provide context for the theoretical components in a series of code examples that can be used as modules of an application, such as input validators, games, and simple animations. This will be supplemented with a brief crash course on HTML and CSS to illustrate how JavaScript components fit into a complete web application. As you learn the concepts, you can try them in your own editor or browser console to get a solid understanding of how they work and what they do. By the end of this JavaScript book, you will feel confident writing core JavaScript code and be equipped to progress to more advanced libraries, frameworks, and environments such as React, Angular, and Node.js.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
16
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17
Index

Functions

You have seen quite a lot of JavaScript already, and now you are ready for functions. Soon you will see that you have been using functions already, but now it is time to learn how to start writing your own. Functions are a great building block that will reduce the amount of code you will need in your app. You can call a function whenever you need it, and you can write it as a kind of template with variables. So, depending on how you've written it, you can reuse it in many situations.

They do require you to think differently about the structure of your code and this can be hard, especially in the beginning. Once you have got the hang of this way of thinking, functions will really help you to write nicely structured, reusable, and low-maintenance code. Let's dive into this new abstraction layer!

Along the way, we will cover the following topics:

  • Basic functions
  • Function arguments
  • Return
  • Variable scope in functions
  • Recursive...