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call vs. bind vs. apply

Today let's expore the differences between call, bind and apply by examining each of these separately first.

call

The first use case for call is to use it for chaining object constructors. It allows to achieve what is similar to an inheritance tree in Java. An example of such constructor chaining can be seen below. We have a generic Animal constructor, and more specific constructors for Zebra and Parrot that inherit all properties of a generic animal i.e. name and gender.

The first argument for call is the context for this while the rest are just optional parameters.

function Animal(name, gender) {
	this.name = name;
	this.gender = gender;
}

function Zebra(name, gender, specialPowers) {
	Animal.call(this, name, gender);
	this.specialPowers = specialPowers;
	this.type = "zebra";
}

function Parrot(name, gender, specialPowers) {
	Animal.call(this, name, gender);
	this.specialPowers = specialPowers;
	this.type = "parrot";
}

let zebra = new Zebra('Johnny', 'male', 'running at 5mph');
let parrot = new Parrot('Leyla', 'female', 'talking in English');

Another interesting example that I have never seen before is to use call for invoking anonymous functions as such:

let animals = [zebra, parrot];

for (let i in animals) {
  (function(animal) {
    this.info = function() {
      console.log('#' + i + ': ' + this.type + ' ' + this.name
                  + ': ' + this.specialPowers);
    }
    this.info();
  }).call(animals[i], i);
}

Finally, perhaps the most common use case of call is to invoke functions with a specified context this such as in example below. It comes handy when you want to keep another context of this rather than the one created by the invoked function.

function greet() {
  let reply = [this.type, this.name, this.specialPowers].join(' ');
  console.log(reply);
}

greet.call(zebra); // zebra Johnny running at 5mph
greet.call(parrot); // parrot Leyla talking in English

bind

As defined by MDN, "the bind() method creates a new function that, when called, has its this keyword set to the provided value, with a given sequence of arguments preceding any provided when the new function is called."

In short, it's different to call in a sense that it does not invoke a new function but once it's invoked, it is already binded with a predefined this context.

var Button = function(content) { 
  this.content = content;
};
Button.prototype.click = function() {
  console.log(this.content + ' clicked');
}

var myButton = new Button('OK');
myButton.click(); // OK clicked

var looseClick = myButton.click;
looseClick(); // undefined clicked because `this` is not myButton but the global object

var boundClick = myButton.click.bind(myButton);
boundClick(); // OK clicked, works as expected due to binding

// Additional exmaple showing binding some parameters
var sum = function(a, b) {
  return a + b;
};

var add5 = sum.bind(null, 5);
console.log(add5(10));

apply

apply is very similar to call in a sense that they both invoke a given function. The only difference is in how the arguments are passed. In call, each argument is declared indivudally such as greet.call(this, arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4) while apply takes an array as an argument list as such greet.apply(this, [arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4]). Let's look at a quick example.

function higherNumber(a, b) {
  console.log(Math.max.apply(null, [a, b]));
}

higherNumber(10, 5); // 10
higherNumber.apply(this, [10, 5]); // 10
higherNumber.call(this, 10, 5); // 10

You can see how call and apply behave the same except for the differences in parameter passing.

Summary

call, apply and bind all deal with the same fundamental problem - keeping this to the one required by the developer rather than the newly created context inside new function invocations. They are all helpful in scenarios such as async callbacks where the desired this would get lost in the way. Also, they help to prevent such code smells as let that = this where you want to save a given this for later. Embarrased to say, I used that trick extensively!

In total, all of the methods discussed above have their place. call and apply are essentially the same, only the usage details differ. bind is helpful for predefining given functions with appropriate this context. It is definitely helpful to understand all of the above and use them wisely :)

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