Arrow function 'this' scope

December 22, 2020

This is just a reminder to myself on how the this scope works in arrow functions and regular functions. For some reason, I always remember them the other way round.

Succinct definition:

ES6 arrow functions can’t be bound to a 'this' keyword, so it will lexically go up a scope, and use the value of 'this' in the scope in which it was defined.

If the definition may seem too fancy, there is no better way than a practical example to see the difference in action.

const arrowFunctionExample = { id: 42, counter: function counter() { setTimeout(() => { console.log(this.id); }, 1000); } }; arrowFunctionExample.counter() // output = 42 const regularFunctionExample = { id: 42, counter: function counter() { setTimeout( function(){ console.log(this.id); }, 1000); } }; regularFunctionExample.counter() // output = undefined

It is as simple as that!

** For beginners: arrow functions are especially useful to access object properties as in the example or for more readable situations; for example when using 'map', 'reduce' or any other built-in higher order function.


Written by Alberto Delgado who loves building cool stuff and learning one or two things in the process.

<Body>

I need to lose some weight

© 2022, Thank you for visiting