Name
Function.apply( ) — invoke a function as a method of an object
Availability
JavaScript 1.2; JScript 5.5; ECMAScript v3
Synopsis
function.apply(thisobj,args)
Arguments
-
thisobj The object to which
functionis to be applied. In the body of the function,thisobjbecomes the value of thethiskeyword.-
args An array of values to be passed as arguments to
function.
Returns
Whatever value is returned by the invocation of
function.
Throws
-
TypeError If this method is invoked on an object that is not a function or if this method is invoked with an
argsargument that is not an array or an Arguments object.
Description
apply( ) invokes the specified
function as if it were a method of
thisobj, passing it the arguments
contained in the args array. It returns
the value returned by the function invocation. Within the body of the
function, the this keyword refers to the
thisobj object.
The args argument must be an array or an
Arguments object. Use Function.call( ) instead if
you want to specify the arguments to pass to the function
individually instead of as array elements.
Example
// Apply the default Object.toString( ) method to an object that // overrides it with its own version of the method. Note no arguments. Object.prototype.toString.apply(o); // Invoke the Math.max( ) method with apply to find the largest // element in an array. Note that first argument doesn't matter // in this case. var data = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]; Math.max.apply(null, data);