How to Obtain the Running Function\'s Name in JavaScript?

Deciphering the Enigma: Obtaining the Running Function's Name in JavaScript

The concept of retrieving the name of the currently executing function has been a burning question for programmers navigating the JavaScript landscape. This article delves into the possibilities and practicalities of this seemingly straightforward task.

Limitations in ES5 and Above

As of ES5, JavaScript no longer provides direct access to the name of the running function. This limitation stems from the language's attempt to prevent malicious code from manipulating the call stack.

Accessing the Function Name in Older Versions of JavaScript

Prior to ES5, developers could leverage the arguments.callee property to extract the name of the calling function. However, this approach had a couple of drawbacks:

• The returned value might contain additional information, such as an anonymous function label.
• Some browsers required additional parsing to isolate the pure function name.

Parsing the Function Name

To purify the function name from any additional information, some JavaScript implementations provide the arguments.callee.name property. In cases where this method is unavailable, developers can utilize the following parsing technique:

<code class="javascript">function DisplayMyName() {
  var myName = arguments.callee.toString();
  myName = myName.substr('function '.length);
  myName = myName.substr(0, myName.indexOf('('));

  alert(myName);
}</code>

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