Get function name from inside itself

Question

let's say I have a function:

 function test1() {

       }

I want to return "test1" from within itself. I found out that you can do arguments.callee which is going to return the whole function and then do some ugly regex. Any better way?

what about namespaced functions?

is it possible to get their name as well: e.g.:

var test2 = 
{
 foo: function() {
    }
};

I want to return foo for this example from within itself.

update: for arguments.callee.name Chrome returns blank, IE9 returns undefined. and it does not work with scoped functions.

possible duplicate of Does javascript function know its name and Get function name in javascript. — Felix Kling
– Felix Kling, Commented Feb 23, 2012 at 22:53
Possible duplicate of How to get the function name from within that function? — Dan Dascalescu
– Dan Dascalescu, Commented Jun 12, 2019 at 19:53

gen_Eric · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-23 23:05:01Z

7

var test2 = {
   foo: function() {
   }
};

You aren't giving the function a name. You are assigning the foo property of test2 to an anonymous function.

arguments.callee.name only works when functions are declared using the function foo(){} syntax.

This should work:

var test2 = {
   foo: function foo() {
      console.log(arguments.callee.name); // "foo"
   }
};

answered Feb 23, 2012 at 23:05

gen_Eric

228k42 gold badges304 silver badges343 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

T. Stone Over a year ago

It's worth noting arguments.callee and arguments.caller are being deprecated.

nnnnnn Over a year ago

And note that when the function runs it doesn't know that it "belongs" to test2. (Because it doesn't "belong", it is just that test2 happens to have a property foo that references the function; you could create other references to the same function. Depending on how you call it it may have a this reference to that object.)

RobG Over a year ago

Fails in IE 8 and lower, here's a good examination of named function expressions and why they aren't a good idea.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Get function name from inside itself

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related