Javascript Absolute Beginner's Guide, 3rd Edition

23

Making Sense of this and More

In this Chapter

• Get a broader overview of the this keyword

• Explore solutions for ensuring this points to the right object by looking at approaches that involve arrow functions, redefining this, and using the bind method

In English, there are many situations where you need to refer to yourself:

• I am hungry.

• This teleportation device belongs to me.

• I don’t know who microwaved the mustard.

• I digress.

In JavaScript, things aren’t too different. We will write or encounter code where we need to refer to the current object in a very general way. The way we get a reference to this object is by the appropriately named this keyword. We’ve seen this keyword a few times already, but now it’s time for us to look deeper ...