What kind of object am I creating here?

Question

I see many sites trying to prevent scope pollution by creating and populating a single object. For example:

var $ = {}
$.something = function() {
   ...
};

But I am wondering about the follow initialisation:

var $ = function() {
    // Something
}
$.something_two = function...

Is there any difference between the two and does the second code initialise a class instance upon each call?

Answer 1

In JavaScript all values, except primitives, are objects.

Ran my own version of your code to help demonstrate:

Also note the types of the objects created. In your first example $ is an object which contains the function(s). In the second, $ is a function (object) with a property which is also a function:

Either option would be ideal for preventing scope pollution, the first example is the most consistent with object creation standards.