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In the vast world of JavaScript programming, understanding scope is key to writing clean and efficient code. One crucial aspect of scope that every developer should grasp is lexical scope. Despite its intimidating name, lexical scope is a fundamental concept that forms the backbone of JavaScript’s scoping mechanism.
In this article, we’ll dive into the world of lexical scope, demystifying its complexities with straightforward explanations and practical examples.
What is Lexical Scope?
Lexical scope, also known as static scope, determines the accessibility of variables based on their physical location within the code. In simpler terms, it’s all about where variables are declared and how they can be accessed by other parts of the code.
Unlike dynamic scope, which relies on the call stack to determine variable visibility, lexical scope is determined at the time of writing code, during the lexing phase. This means that variables are scoped based on their position within the code’s structure, rather than the order in which functions are called at runtime.
