When a function is stored as a property of an object, we call it a method. When a method is invoked, this is bound to that object. If an invocation expression contains a refinement (that is, a . dot expression or [subscript] expression), it is invoked as a method:

// Create myObject. It has a value and an increment
// method. The increment method takes an optional
// parameter. If the argument is not a number, then 1
// is used as the default.

var myObject = {
    value: 0,
    increment: function (inc) {
        this.value += typeof inc === 'number' ? inc : 1;
    }
};

myObject.increment(  );
document.writeln(myObject.value);    // 1

myObject.increment(2);
document.writeln(myObject.value);    // 3

A method can use this to access the object so that it can retrieve values from the object or modify the object. The binding of this to the object happens at invocation time. This very late binding makes functions that use this highly reusable. Methods that get their object context from this are called public methods.

When a function is not the property of an object, then it is invoked as a function:

var sum = add(3, 4);    // sum is 7

When a function is invoked with this pattern, this is bound to the global object. This was a mistake in the design of the language. Had the language been designed correctly, when the inner function is invoked, this would still be bound to the this variable of the outer function. A consequence of this error is that a method cannot employ an inner function to help it do its work because the inner function does not share the method's access to the object as its this is bound to the wrong value. Fortunately, there is an easy workaround. If the method defines a variable and assigns it the value of this, the inner function will have access to this through that variable. By convention, the name of that variable is that:

// Augment myObject with a double method.

myObject.double = function (  ) {
    var that = this;    // Workaround.

    var helper = function (  ) {
        that.value = add(that.value, that.value);
    };

    helper(  );    // Invoke helper as a function.
};

// Invoke double as a method.

myObject.double(  );
document.writeln(myObject.value);     // 6 

JavaScript is a prototypal inheritance language. That means that objects can inherit properties directly from other objects. The language is class-free.

This is a radical departure from the current fashion. Most languages today are classical. Prototypal inheritance is powerfully expressive, but is not widely understood. JavaScript itself is not confident in its prototypal nature, so it offers an object-making syntax that is reminiscent of the classical languages. Few classical programmers found prototypal inheritance to be acceptable, and classically inspired syntax obscures the language's true prototypal nature. It is the worst of both worlds.

If a function is invoked with the new prefix, then a new object will be created with a hidden link to the value of the function's prototype member, and this will be bound to that new object.

The new prefix also changes the behavior of the return statement. We will see more about that next.

// Create a constructor function called Quo.
// It makes an object with a status property.

var Quo = function (string) {
    this.status = string;
};

// Give all instances of Quo a public method
// called get_status.

Quo.prototype.get_status = function (  ) {
    return this.status;
};

// Make an instance of Quo.

var myQuo = new Quo("confused");

document.writeln(myQuo.get_status(  ));  // confused

Functions that are intended to be used with the new prefix are called constructors. By convention, they are kept in variables with a capitalized name. If a constructor is called without the new prefix, very bad things can happen without a compile-time or runtime warning, so the capitalization convention is really important.

Use of this style of constructor functions is not recommended. We will see better alternatives in the next chapter.

Because JavaScript is a functional object-oriented language, functions can have methods.

The apply method lets us construct an array of arguments to use to invoke a function. It also lets us choose the value of this. The apply method takes two parameters. The first is the value that should be bound to this. The second is an array of parameters.

// Make an array of 2 numbers and add them.

var array = [3, 4];
var sum = add.apply(null, array);    // sum is 7

// Make an object with a status member.

var statusObject = {
    status: 'A-OK'
};

// statusObject does not inherit from Quo.prototype,
// but we can invoke the get_status method on
// statusObject even though statusObject does not have
// a get_status method.

var status = Quo.prototype.get_status.apply(statusObject);
    // status is 'A-OK'