How do
work in JS in relation to each other (and what exactly are they; is a constructor a function, object, prototype, "this")?
Can someone please clarify this? I have an idea of what each of them are and how they work, but not a clear one.
I think it would be easier to understand questions that arise, like, for example: "Is a.constructor the same as a.prototype.constructor", if one knows what these things are.
Object - A collection of name-value pairs, for example:
var someObject = {
aName: "aValue",
name2: "value2"
}
Constructor - a function that 'creates' an object, for example:
function someObject(someParam) {
this.someParam = someParam;
this.getSomeParam = function() {
return this.someParam;
}
}
Prototype - a special type of object, from which other objects inherit properties. Every object has a prototype. You can use them to add a method to all instances of an object, for example:
String.prototype.doSomething = function() {
//Do something with a String
}
Now that you have defined a doSomething method on the String prototype, all String objects can use it:
var myString = "Hello";
myString.doSomething();
For more information about the JavaScript language and how it works, I suggest you take a look at the ECMAScript spec, or for something a bit lighter, read this.
