Understanding Default Parameters in JavaScript

In ECMAScript 2015, default function parameters were introduced to the JavaScript language. These allow developers to initialize a function with default values if the arguments are not supplied to the function call. Initializing function parameters in this way will make your functions easier to read and less error-prone, and will provide default behavior for your functions. This will help you avoid errors that stem from passing in undefined arguments and destructuring objects that don’t exist.

In this article, you will review the difference between parameters and arguments, learn how to use default parameters in functions, see alternate ways to support default parameters, and learn what types of values and expressions can be used as default parameters. You will also run through examples that demonstrate how default parameters work in JavaScript.

Something that’s not really underlined in the article is the fact that these default function parameters are evaluated at call time. Take this snippet for example:

function test(when = new Date()) {
  console.log(when);
}

In case when is omitted (and thus has the value of undefined), its value will be set to the date it was at the moment the function was called.

Understanding Default Parameters in JavaScript →

// As you have to do it now
function isCardValidAtTime(Card $card, \DateTime $when = null) {
  $when = $when ?? new \DateTime('now', new \DateTimeZone('UTC'));
  // (function logic)
}

// As I would like to do it in
function isCardValidAtTime(Card $card, \DateTime $when = new \DateTime('now', new \DateTimeZone('UTC'))) {
  // (function logic)
}