function & properties

[motion-ex]

I would like to know the difference in Javascript between those two lines of code

oneobject.oneproperty = onefunction;

and

oneobject.oneproperty = onefunction();

[Ize]

In your second example, the function onefunction is executed immediately, due to the parentheses.
This results in oneobject.oneproperty containing the return value of the function instead of a reference to the function itself.
Example:

 
function foo () {
  return false;
}
 
myObject.prop = foo ();
 
alert (myObject.prop); // alerts 'false'
 
myObject.prop = foo;
 
alert (myObject.prop); // alerts the function definition

[motion-ex]

Thank you i see now... so when would be the first one more usefull than the second one, because i can't see any case where i would not need my function to be executed immediately...

[felgall]

When you set up an event handler you want to attach the processing to the event and not run it until the event occurs.

For example

window.onload = start;

will run the start function when the page finishes loading and the fields that it needs to access can be accessed. If instead you run

window.onload = start();

then you will get lots of "object has no properties" errors and will assign something meaningless to do when the page finishes loading.

[Ize]

Thank you i see now... so when would be the first one more usefull than the second one, because i can't see any case where i would not need my function to be executed immediately...

Probably never when using event handlers, unless you want to delegate which function you want to execute when the event is fired, based on certain conditions.
Example:

function getEvent (){
  if (conditionOne == true){
    return function (){
               doSomething();
             };
  } else {
    return function (){
               doSomethingElse();
             };
  }
}
 
myObject.prop = getEvent();

But this is almost never necessary (and there are, IMHO, more readable ways of accomplishing the same.).

But you are, obviously, not always dealing with event handlers. Assigning return values instead of function references is very common when writing Javascripts.
Example:

function toggleDisplay (){
  if (conditionOne==true){
    return 'block';
  } else {
    return 'none';
  }
}
myObject.style.display = toggleDisplay();

[motion-ex]

thank you both for your answers i see clearly what i will be able to do with those two!