Sneaky Javascript For Loop Bug
- by Liam McLennan
Javascript allows you to declare variables simply by assigning a value to an identify, in the same style as ruby: myVar = "some text";
Good javascript developers know that this is a bad idea because undeclared variables are assigned to the global object, usually window, making myVar globally visible. So the above code is equivalent to:
window.myVar = "some text";
What I did not realise is that this applies to for loop initialisation as well.
for (i = 0; i < myArray.length; i += 1) {
}
// is equivalent to
for (window.i = 0; window.i < myArray.length; window.i += 1) {
}
Combine this with function calls nested inside of the for loops and you get some very strange behaviour, as the value of i is modified simultaneously by code in different scopes. The moral of the story is to ALWAYS declare javascript variables with the var keyword, even when intialising a for loop.
for (var i = 0; i < myArray.length; i += 1) {
}
