Does anybody understand the thingamajig code?

[meelaik]

Hi all,

I just started with JavaScript by reading this book.

So far so good :) But I stuck on the thingamajig code.

I cannot exactly understand how the code is executed and why the console says 120, if we call the thingamajig function with 5.

Thanks a lot in advance

Cheers Mee

[bethrobson]

Hi there. Did you try writing down the value of all the variables for each function call? That's the easiest way to figure it out. Also remember clunkCounter is a global variable so all the references to clunkCounter in the functions are modifying that one global variable.

E.g. for size = 0: facky = 1 clunkCounter = 0 call display() = clunkCounter = 1 We don't call clunk(). print clunkCounter, 1

For size = 1: facky = 1 clunkCounter = 0 call display() = clunkCounter = 1 We don't call clunk() print clunkCounter, 1

For size = 2: facky = 1 clunkCounter = 0 facky = 1 * 2 = 2 size = 1 call clunk(2) call display twice (because times = 2) clunkCounter = 2 print clunkCounter, 2

And continue. Now you do this for size = 5.

[meelaik]

Hi Elisabeth, thanks so much for answering :)

You have helped me a lot, but I still do not understand why we get 6 clunks when calling thingamajig with argument 3.

What's the main difference between the argument 2 and 3? (I think an explanation here would solve my problem... ;))

Thank you very much

[hrkoren]

I agree! Sizes up through 2, make sense. After that is where I am getting lost - if it’s a while loop, I still can’t get it to work. Driving me nuts trying to figure out how this works.

[bethrobson]

For size = 3: facky = 1 clunkCounter = 0 while loop: facky = 3 size = 2 facky = 6 size = 1 end while loop call clunk(6) num = 6 while loop display clunk 6 times increase clunkCounter 6 times to 6 end function calls display clunkCounter, which is 6