How to delete an object from inside?

Question

I'd like to know how to delete an object from inside, when this object will no longer be used.

For example :

var MyObject = function () {
    return {
        'some': function() {...},
        'actions': function() {...},
        'destroy': function() {
            this = null; // throws a "ReferenceError: Invalid left-hand side in assignment"
        },
    }
}

// Doing so, I would be able to :
var obj = new MyObject();
obj.some();

// And when I have finished :
obj.destroy();

The reason behind that is that I can't destroy it from outside (the object is created on "click" on a DOM element, but it will be destroyed when you click somewhere else, so the scope of the creation (in the "onClick" method) is not available where I want to delete it.

How can I do that?

In fact, no, I just saw a duplicate of my question : stackoverflow.com/questions/2304860/… (that will answer your question) — Cyril N.
– Cyril N., Commented Apr 5, 2013 at 6:04

Peter Lyons · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-05 06:07:30Z

1

JavaScript simply doesn't work that way. In fact, you can't destroy objects whatsoever. The one and only thing you can do is to make sure you do not have any references to an object which will then make it eligible for garbage collection by the JS runtime. If you post a more complete snippet we can tell you whether you have a memory leak or not, but if you have done a corresponding .off for every .on and set any referencing variables to null, that is the full extent of what you can and should do in JavaScript.

answered Apr 5, 2013 at 6:07

Peter Lyons

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