Does javascript autobox?

Question

While working on another problem, I created this fiddle:

http://jsfiddle.net/tr2by/

function foo() {
    // console.log(_.isBoolean(this));
    console.log(this === true);
}

foo.call(true); // object:[object Boolean]
foo.apply(true); // object:[object Boolean]

Is this an example of auto-boxing?

Going from a value type to a reference type.

Here is a wikipedia def.

Answer 1

First of all I assume you are talking about automatic conversion of primitive values to objects. This happens in two cases in JavaScript:

1. When you pass a primitive value as the this value to .call or .apply (not in strict mode though).
2. When you are trying to access a "property" of a primitive value, e.g. "foo bar".split().

In the first case the conversion is permanent, i.e. this will indeed reference an object, in the second the conversion only takes place internally for the duration of the evaluation

If you are not interested in the details of the conversion, you can ignore the rest of the answer.

---

1. Primitive value as this

When a function is exectued and its this value is not an object, it is converted to one, at least in non-strict mode. This is described in §10.4.3 Entering Function Code ^[spec] in the ECMAScript 5.1 documentation:

The following steps are performed when control enters the execution context for function code contained in function object F, a caller provided thisArg, and a caller provided argumentsList:

1. If the function code is strict code, set the ThisBinding to thisArg.
2. Else if thisArg is null or undefined, set the ThisBinding to the global object.
3. Else if Type(thisArg) is not Object, set the ThisBinding to ToObject(thisArg).
   [...]

As you can see in step three the value is converted to an object by calling ToObject ^[spec].

2. Property access

Something similar happens when you are trying to access properties (§11.2.1 Property Accessors ^[spec]). The quoted part here explains how the expression foo[bar] is evaluated, i.e. how property access with the bracket notation is evaluated. The part we are interested in applies to dot notation as well.

The production MemberExpression : MemberExpression [ Expression ] is evaluated as follows:

1. Let baseReference be the result of evaluating MemberExpression.
2. Let baseValue be GetValue(baseReference).
   [...]

   8. Return a value of type Reference whose base value is baseValue and whose referenced name is propertyNameString, and whose strict mode flag is strict.

The important step is the last one: No matter to what MemberExpression evaluates, it is converted to a value of type Reference ^[spec]. This is a datatype only used in the specification and contains additional information about how the actual value should be retrieved from the reference (not to be confused with object references in actual JavaScript code!).

To get the "real" value/result from such a reference, the internal function GetValue(V) (§8.7.1) ^[spec] is called (just like in step 2 in the above algorithm), where it says:

The following [[Get]] internal method is used by GetValue when V is a property reference with a primitive base value. It is called using base as its this value and with property P as its argument. The following steps are taken:

1. Let O be ToObject(base).
   [...]

Example:

Assume we have the expression

var foo = "BAR".toLowerCase();

This is an assignment expression which is evaluated as follows:

The production AssignmentExpression : LeftHandSideExpression = AssignmentExpression is evaluated as follows:

1. Let lref be the result of evaluating LeftHandSideExpression.
2. Let rref be the result of evaluating AssignmentExpression.
3. Let rval be GetValue(rref).
   [...]

Step 1: The left hand side is evaluated, which is the identifier foo. How exactly identifiers are resolved is not important for this.
Step 2: The right hand side is evaluated, i.e. "BAR".toLowerCase(). The internal result of that evaluation will be a reference value, similar to:

REFERENCE = {
    base: "BAR",
    propertyNameString: "toLowerCase",
    strict: false
}

and stored in rref.

Step 3: GetValue(rref) is called. The base of the reference is the value "BAR". Since this is a primitive value, ToObject will be called to convert it to a temporary String object. Furthermore, the reference is actually a property access, so GetValue will eventually call the method toLowerCase on the String object and return the method's result.