Assigning function parameters using variables?

Question

I am trying to make a simple piece of JavaScript code, where the user puts in the length and width of a box, and the computer calculates the area of the box for them. What I did is assign the function parameters to (length, width) and then I made two variables that would be assigned to what the user put in for the length and width. After the user has input the length and width, I called the function and assigned it's parameters to the two length and width variables. Next I made a confirm part, that took the end result of the function and displayed it.

//Telling the computer what to do with the length and width.
var area = function (length, width) {
    return length * width;
};

//Asking the user what the length and width are, and assigning the answers to the function.
var l = prompt("What is the length of the box?");
var w = prompt("What is the width of the box?");
area(l, w);

//Showing the end-result.
confirm("The area is:" + " " + area);

What happens is, the end result shows

The area is: function (length, width) { return length * width;\ }

So the end result of the code is showing the stuff to the right of the equals sign, as if what is written there is a string. Can anyone help out?

Lee Adams · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-20 21:01:47Z

1

What you've done is pass the function named area to the function named confirm. You want instead, to pass the result of calling the function named area to the function named confirm

confirm("The area is:" + area(l, w));

Or alternatively:

var result = area(l, w);
confirm("The area is: " + result);

answered Sep 20, 2014 at 21:01

Lee Adams

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Comments

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-20 20:59:22Z

0

You need to assign the result to another variable:

var calculated_area = area(l, w);

confirm("The area is: " + calculated_area);

What you saw is that the variable area contains the function, not the value that it returns.

answered Sep 20, 2014 at 20:59

Barmar

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