Variadic Functions In JavaScript

A variadic function is a function where the total number of parameters are unknown and can be adjusted at the time the method is called.

The C programming language, along with many others, have an interesting little feature called an ellipsis argument. When an ellipsis is used in a methods signature, that method can then accept a varying number of arguments.

CodeProject

Example C Variadic Function:

int main(void) {
    variadic_func(4, 1, 2, 3, 4); // Returns 10 as the sum
    variadic_func(2, 1, 2); // Returns 3 as the sum
    return 0;
}

void variadic_func(int num_args, ...) {
  int ellipses_args, i;
  int sum = 0;
  va_list list_pointer;
  va_start(list_pointer, num_args);

  for(i = 0; i < num_args; i++ ) {
      ellipses_args = va_arg(list_pointer, int);
      sum = ellipses_args;
  }

  va_end(list_pointer);
  printf("%i\n", sum); // Outputs the sum of the given args
}

The variadic_func() has a signature with 2 parameters but thanks to the ellipsis it can accept a variable number of arguments. Now let's see how we can take this same concept and implement it in JavaScript.

JavaScript And ...

Since JavaScript is a functional language, every function can be variadic and in various JavaScript libraries you'll commonly see Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments) used to get a variable number of trailing arguments back as an array.

Unfortunately, JavaScript does not currently support ellipses; it is however in the works with ECMAScript 6. But for now, we are stuck implementing a function that will collect trailing arguments into an array for us:

JavaScript Variadic Implementation:

(function () {
    var slice = Array.prototype.slice,
        variadic = function (fn) {
            var fnLength = fn.length;

            if (fnLength < 1 ) {
                return fn;
            }
            else if (fnLength === 1) {
                return function () {
                    return fn.call(this, slice.call(arguments, 0));
                }
            }
            else {
              return function () {
                  var numberOfArgs = arguments.length,
                      namedArgs = slice.call(arguments, 0, fnLength - 1),
                      numberOfMissingNamedArgs = Math.max(fnLength - numberOfArgs - 1, 0),
                      argPadding = new Array(numberOfMissingNamedArgs),
                      variadicArgs = slice.call(arguments, fn.length - 1);

                  return fn.apply(this, namedArgs.concat(argPadding).concat([variadicArgs]));
              }
          }
      },
      ellipsisFun = function (firstArg, ellipsis) {
          return [firstArg, ellipsis];
      };

      console.log(ellipsisFun('one', 'two', 'three')); // Returns ["one", "two"]
      console.log(variadic(ellipsisFun)('one', 'two', 'three')); // Returns ["one", ["two", "three"]]
}());

The JavaScript implementation of a variadic function takes a single function as it's argument and returns a new function that then passes in every additional argument as an array to the last parameter.

Disclaimer

In JavaScript, a functions parameters can be accessed from the arguments object.

Using Arguments Object:

function argumentsObject () {
    for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {
        console.log(arguments[i]);
    }
}

argumentsObject('I', 'should', 'sleep', 'more'); // Outputs all 4 strings to the console

One might think that going through all this trouble to create a variadic function isn't worth it. Just know that using the arguments object is considerably slower than directly accessing argument bindings.

But if performance is a top priority then you probably shouldn't be using a function that takes a variable number of arguments in that section anyway.

Practical Usage

So when would we use a variadic function?
One example, that's used often on the web, is an event triggering mechanism which accepts a variable number of arguments.

Original Trigger:

function (item) {
  var args;
  if (!this._events) return this;
  args = slice.call(arguments, 1);
  return this;
}

Could be rewritten to be:

variadic(function (item, args) {
  var args;
  if (!this._events) return this;
  return this;
}

Wrap up

Variadic functions are quite useful and powerful in their own way; and if used properly, in some edge cases they can improve performance. One final note; earlier in my disclaimer I stated that using the arguments object is considerably slower than not.

Here is a jsperf benchmark created by Chris Khoo that shows how slow arguments usage is. And for good measure here is a benchmark for arguments vs. array arguments. As always, if you have any questions or see any blatant mistakes in this post don't hesitate in letting me know!