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javascriptshadowingglobal-scope

How to avoid shadowing the window.close function?


I have a function named close in a js file that can't be renamed for some reason. Now whenever I want to use window.close function (to close the browser tab) I can't: my close function overrides that functionality.

Is there a way to call the main window.close function to close the browser tab?

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<button onclick="myFunction()">Click me</button>

<script>
    function close() {
        alert('hi')
    }
    function myFunction() {
        window.close()
    }
</script>

</body>
</html>


Solution

  • You can change the close variable from being property of the global object to be a global variable only by declaring it with let or const - see Do let statements create properties on the global object?. So with

    /* do not change to function declaration or var, as that would break `window.close`! */
    const close = function close() {
        alert('hi')
    };
    

    your myFunction implementation

    function myFunction() {
        window.close()
    }
    

    will just begin to work.

    (Of course, this will break all old code that did call window.close() and expected it to alert('hi') - but imo that was a bug anyway).