How are inner functions arguments known?

[evanr1234]

var http = require("http"), fs = require("fs");

var methods = Object.create(null);

http.createServer(function(request, response) {
  function respond(code, body, type) {
    if (!type) type = "text/plain";
    response.writeHead(code, {"Content-Type": type});
    if (body && body.pipe)
      body.pipe(response);
    else
      response.end(body);
  }
  if (request.method in methods)
    methods[request.method](urlToPath(request.url),
                            respond, request);
  else
    respond(405, "Method " + request.method +
            " not allowed.");
}).listen(8000);

So, I just have trouble understanding how the computer knows the values of the “code”, “body” and “type” arguments… I understand they must have been defined during the creation of the “createServer” function but if someone could expound upon this to help me understand better it would be greatly appreciated.

[m_hutley]

@evanr1234

they must have been defined during the creation of the “createServer” function

False.

They were defined during the creation of the respond function:
function respond(code, body, type) {
And they were filled when that function is invoked:

@evanr1234

respond(405, “Method " + request.method + " not allowed.”);

[m3g4p0p]

@evanr1234

So, I just have trouble understanding how the computer knows the values of the “code”, “body” and “type” arguments

Hi @evanr1234 , you’re explicitly passing those arguments here:

    respond(405, "Method " + request.method +
            " not allowed.");

Inside the function, that gives you the following values for the function parameters:

function respond(code, body, type) {
  // code === 405
  // body === 'Method ' + request.method + ' not allowed'
  // type === undefined
}

As for passing that function to methods[request.method], that part will never get executed as methods is an empty object even without prototype.

(x-post)

[evanr1234]

I understand. Thank you.

As a separate but similar question, how dose the computer know what the request and response objects/arguments are? It would be helpful to see how the createServer function was defined but I wasn’t able to find it.

[m3g4p0p]

@evanr1234

how dose the computer know what the request and response objects/arguments are?

Both are regular arguments getting passed to the callback function you passed to createServer() (namely an IncomingMessage and a ServerResponse object). If you’re not familiar with the concept of callbacks, it works like this:

function doSomething (callback) {
  callback(null, 42)
}

doSomething(function (error, value) {
  console.log('Callback got called with', error, value)
  // -> Callback got called with null 42
})