Unexpected behaviour in really simple google apps script

Question

So here is my google apps script without the block comment on top:

function GET_POSITION(game,position) {
  defaultsheets=['Stats','Games','Calculations'];
  var sheets=SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheets();

  sheets.forEach(function(sheet) {
    name=defaultsheets.indexOf(sheet.getName())==-1;

    return false;
    if(name)
    {
      name='test';
    }
  });
  return name;
}

Yes I know, this is a weird script and it does not do anything.That is because I kept changing it trying to find out why it would not work.

But that is not the problem. I would expect this script to return false. It does not, it returns true. But when i remove the "return false" it still wont run the if statement (it just keeps returning True).

Meaning:

• return false gets ignored?

• name is equal to true, but when doing if(name), the if statement is not executed.

Putting name="test" at the beginning of the sheet will make the function return "test".

I have no idea why this script is functioning this way.

Answer 1

Well, haha, this is a weird script. When I first looked at it, I thought, how could this even run without a compiling error? The variable name is being called outside the scope of a closure, the rest of the function shouldn't know anything about it, it would give an undeclared variable error.

Then I saw that you're not using var to initialize your variable name. That makes name behave like a global constant. That will give you unexpected behavior certainly. There is just never a good reason to do that.

Declaring variables without var keyword

Another thing is that only that anonymous function is returning false. Then it jumps out and returns name, which has been set to true.

What are Closures and Callbacks?

And, I have to ask, why are you using ALL_CAPS to name a function?