javascript syntax: function calls and using parenthesis

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The () after a function means to execute the function itself and return it’s value. Without it you simply have the function, which can be useful to pass around as a callback.

var f1 = function() { return 1; }; // 'f1' holds the function itself, not the value '1'
var f2 = function() { return 1; }(); // 'f2' holds the value '1' because we're executing it with the parenthesis after the function definition

var a = f1(); // we are now executing the function 'f1' which return value will be assigned to 'a'
var b = f2(); // we are executing 'f2' which is the value 1. We can only execute functions so this won't work

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