function.call

The call() method calls a function with a given this value and arguments provided individually.

Syntax

fun.call(thisArg[, arg1[, arg2[, ...]]])

Parameters

thisArg

The value of this provided for the call to fun. Note that this may not be the actual value seen by the method: if the method is a function in non-strict mode code, null and undefined will be replaced with the global object and primitive values will be converted to objects.

arg1, arg2, ...

Arguments for the object.

Return value

The result of calling the function with the specified this value and arguments.

Description

A different this object can be assigned when calling an existing function. this refers to the current object, the calling object. With call, you can write a method once and then inherit it in another object, without having to rewrite the method for the new object.

Examples

Using call to chain constructors for an object

You can use call to chain constructors for an object, similar to Java. In the following example, the constructor for the Product object is defined with two parameters, name and price. Two other functions Food and Toy invoke Product passing this and name and price. Product initializes the properties name and price, both specialized functions define the category.

function Product(name, price) {
  this.name = name;
  this.price = price;

  if (price < 0) {
    throw RangeError('Cannot create product ' +
                      this.name + ' with a negative price');
  }
}

function Food(name, price) {
  Product.call(this, name, price);
  this.category = 'food';
}

function Toy(name, price) {
  Product.call(this, name, price);
  this.category = 'toy';
}

var cheese = new Food('feta', 5);
var fun = new Toy('robot', 40);

Using call to invoke an anonymous function

In this purely constructed example, we create an anonymous function and use call to invoke it on every object in an array. The main purpose of the anonymous function here is to add a print function to every object, which is able to print the right index of the object in the array. Passing the object as this value was not strictly necessary, but is done for explanatory purpose.

var animals = [
  { species: 'Lion', name: 'King' },
  { species: 'Whale', name: 'Fail' }
];

for (var i = 0; i < animals.length; i++) {
  (function(i) {
    this.print = function() {
      console.log('#' + i + ' ' + this.species
                  + ': ' + this.name);
    }
    this.print();
  }).call(animals[i], i);
}

Using call to invoke a function and specifying the context for 'this'

In below example, when we will call greet the value of this will be bound to object i.

function greet() {
  var reply = [this.person, 'Is An Awesome', this.role].join(' ');
  console.log(reply);
}

var i = {
  person: 'Douglas Crockford', role: 'Javascript Developer'
};

greet.call(i); // Douglas Crockford Is An Awesome Javascript Developer

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
ECMAScript 1st Edition (ECMA-262)	Standard	Initial definition. Implemented in JavaScript 1.3.
ECMAScript 5.1 (ECMA-262) The definition of 'Function.prototype.call' in that specification.	Standard
ECMAScript 2015 (6th Edition, ECMA-262) The definition of 'Function.prototype.call' in that specification.	Standard
ECMAScript 2017 Draft (ECMA-262) The definition of 'Function.prototype.call' in that specification.	Draft

Browser compatibility

See also

• Function.prototype.bind()
• Function.prototype.apply()

• Introduction to Object-Oriented JavaScript