How to Dynamically Add Two Variables in JavaScript: Keeping Your score Up-to-Date

Discover how to dynamically update a score variable in JavaScript by adding two regularly changing variables, ensuring you always have the latest sum displayed.
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How to Dynamically Add Two Variables in JavaScript: Keeping Your score Up-to-Date

In the world of programming, particularly in JavaScript, updating values based on user interaction is a common challenge. One user recently encountered a situation where they needed to add two variables together that changed over time, but their application failed to display the current score properly. Instead, the score remained frozen at its initial value, which was not the desired behavior. In this guide, we will explore how to keep a score updated by dynamically recalculating it with two regularly changing variables: invisScore and prodScore.

Understanding the Problem

The original issue was straightforward: every time the user updated the prodScore, they expected the score (the sum of invisScore and prodScore) to reflect this change. However, the implementation only calculated the score once at the beginning and failed to update it with subsequent changes. Here's an outline of the main points to consider:

Variables: There are two primary variables (invisScore, prodScore) that change over time.

Static Score: The score variable was set at the start and did not recalibrate with changes to prodScore.

Desired Outcome: The score should always be updated to reflect the current total of invisScore and prodScore whenever either of them changes.

Solution Breakdown

To resolve this issue and ensure that score always reflects the latest values, we can adopt one of two approaches:

Update the Score Inline with Changes

Use a Function to Recalculate the Score

1. Update the Score Inline with Changes

In this method, we incorporate the updating of score directly within the functions that modify the prodScore. Based on the original code, here's how it can be done:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In this solution, as soon as prodScore is updated, we recalculate score. This way, score will always have the most current value whenever changes occur.

2. Use a Function to Recalculate the Score

Alternatively, we can create a dedicated function that recalculates the score, which can be called anytime we need to display the latest total. Here’s how this approach would look:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In this approach, the score is defined as a function that computes its value whenever called, ensuring that it always reflects the latest data. We call updateScore() to refresh the value displayed in the HTML whenever we want to see the latest score.

Conclusion

As we can see, managing dynamic values in JavaScript can be challenging, but with the right techniques, we can ensure that our applications behave as expected. In summary:

To keep the score variable updated, you can either recalculate it within the functions that change prodScore or create a function that calculates the latest score when called.

This approach ensures that users always see an up-to-date total based on their actions.

Key Takeaway: Always ensure that you recalculate dependent values when their base components change! Happy coding!