Similar but slightly different JavaScript functions

Question

I have two very similar functions that exist mainly for syntactic sugar.

deactivate = (el, seek) -> el.find(seek).removeClass("active")
activate = (el, seek) -> el.find(seek).addClass("active")

This allows me to write, for example:

activate $("#something"), ".child"

Using the above purely as an example, ignoring any logical errors with the JavaScript itself... how could this be refactored to be more dry?

Answer 1

You can use js' bracket notation for this task

alter = (el, seek, method) -> el.find(seek)[method + "Class"]("active")
#use like this:
alter $("#something"), ".child", "add"

However, your situation doesn't really call for DRYness. Your method names make more sense than alter, or whichever name you may choose.

• RoToRa: You could just use your alter function as a stepping stone for the definitions of activate/deactivate become more DRY: deactivate = (el, seek) -> alter el, seek, "remove" activate = (el, seek) -> alter el, seek, "add" (Disclamer: I don't use CoffeScript)
• Zirak: @RoToRa Correct, and you can also do it the other way around: Store activate and deactivate on an object, and pass which one you want as an argument to alter: containingObject[method]("active")
• Toast: Thank you. I think the syntactic benefit of my initial functions outweigh the benefit of making the code more DRY. I was just wondering if there was something I was missing here.

Answer 2

I think your code is fine. I would only suggest a more complex solution only if this pattern happens more often.

For example, if you want to refactor to allow for other class names you can do something like this:

adder = clsName -> (el, seek) -> el.find(seek).removeClass(clsName)
remover = clsName -> (el, seek) -> el.find(seek).addClass(clsName)
activate = adder 'active'
deactivate = remover 'active'