doubts on javascript apply - function memoization

Question

I'm struggling with an example of js memoization found on a book, here's the code:

Function.prototype.memoized = function(key){
    this._values = this._values || {};
    return this._values[key] !== undefined ? this._values[key] : this._values[key] = this.apply(this, arguments);
}

here's a fiddle with a complete example

what I don't really get is how this piece of code works and what it does, in particular the apply part:

return this._values[key] !== undefined ? this._values[key] : this._values[key] = this.apply(this, arguments);

I know and understand how apply works

The apply() method calls a function with a given this value and arguments provided as an array

suppose that this._values[key] is equal to undefined, then the returned value will be this.apply(this, arguments): does this code re-launch the memoized function? I've tried to add some logs inside the function to see how many times the function is called, but it seems it's been launched only once..

Can anyone please give me a hint? It's probably a dummy question, please be patient, thanks

Answer 1

Let's use a simple example, fibonacci numbers.

function fib(n) {
    if (n < 2) return 1;
    return fib.memoized(n-1) + fib.memoized(n-2);
}

Here we can see that the memoized method is applied on the fib function, i.e. your this keyword refers to the fib function. It does not relaunch the memoized function, but "launches" the function on which it was called. However, it does call it with this set to the function itself, which does not make any sense. Better:

Function.prototype.memoize = function(key){
    if (!this._values)
        this._values = {};
    if (key in this._values)
        return this._values[key];
    else
        return this._values[key] = this.apply(null, arguments);
// pass null here:                            ^^^^
}

Even better would be if memoized would return a closure:

Function.prototype.memoized = function(v) {
    var fn = this, // the function on which "memoized" was called
        values = v || {};
    return function(key) {
        if (key in values)
            return values[key];
        else
            return values[key] = fn.apply(this, arguments);
    }
}
var fib = function(n) {
    if (n < 2) return 1;
    return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2);
}.memoized();
// or even
var fib = function(n) { return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2) }.memoized({0:1, 1:1});