Why must I define a variable outside a javascript function definition? (jQuery / #anchor question)

Question

I am writing a jQuery function that relies on knowing the current #anchor of the page. I am using the jQuery URL Parser plugin to get the anchor.

 $.fn.vtabs = function() {
   alert("Your anchor is "+$.url.attr('anchor'));
 }

This code gives me the anchor "#nav" endlessly (I use #nav in some of the my links). I can type in "#newanchor" into the browser bar endless times, and click url's to this page that use different anchors, but always this code gives me "#nav".

I fixed my problem by changing the code to:

 var current_anchor = $.url.attr('anchor');
 $.fn.vtabs = function() {
   alert("Your anchor is "+current_anchor);
 }

Now it always gives me the correct anchor. But I don't know why, and it appears messy to have that variable defined outside of the function.

Answer 1

Looks like there might be some caching going on with that plugin. Why not skip the plugin and just use window.location.hash to get the anchor?