In JavaScript, functions are first-class citizens, meaning they can be assigned to variables, passed as arguments to other functions, and even have properties of their own. One such property is the name property, which stores the name of the function.

Accessing the Function Name Property

To access the name property of a function, you can simply use the dot notation on the function object. For example:

function greeting() {
  console.log("Hello, world!");
}

console.log(greeting.name); // Output: greeting

In the above example, greeting.name will return the name of the function which is “greeting”.

Anonymous Functions

If a function is defined without a name, it is referred to as an anonymous function. When accessing the name property of an anonymous function, it will return an empty string.

const anonymousFunc = function() {
  console.log("This is an anonymous function.");
};

console.log(anonymousFunc.name); // Output: ""

In the above example, anonymousFunc.name will return an empty string as the function is anonymous.

Function Expressions

When using function expressions to define a function, the name property will still be accessible and return the name of the variable holding the function.

const myFunction = function customName() {
  console.log("This is a function expression.");
};

console.log(myFunction.name); // Output: customName

In the above example, myFunction.name will return “customName”.

Function Declarations

For function declarations, the name property will return the name of the function itself.

function sum(a, b) {
  return a + b;
}

console.log(sum.name); // Output: sum

In the above example, sum.name will return “sum”.

Conclusion

The name property of a function provides a convenient way to access the name of the function, making it useful for debugging and other scenarios where you need to work with function names programmatically.