An Immediately-invoked Function Expression is a way to execute functions immediately, as soon as they are created. IIFEs are very useful because they don’t pollute the global object, and they are a simple way to isolate variables declarations

An Immediately-invoked Function Expression (IIFE for friends) is a way to execute functions immediately, as soon as they are created.

IIFEs are very useful because they don’t pollute the global object, and they are a simple way to isolate variables declarations.

This is the syntax that defines an IIFE:

(function() {
  /* */
})()

IIFEs can be defined with arrow functions as well:

(() => {
  /* */
})()

We basically have a function defined inside parentheses, and then we append () to execute that function: (/* function */)().

Those wrapping parentheses are actually what make our function, internally, be considered an expression. Otherwise, the function declaration would be invalid, because we didn’t specify any name:

Function declarations want a name, while function expressions do not require it.

You could also put the invoking parentheses inside the expression parentheses, there is no difference, just a styling preference:

(function() {
  /* */
}())

(() => {
  /* */
}())

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