What is the "new" for?

Answer 1

the short answer is that using the 'new' keyword does a couple of things.

1. It creates a new object

2. It makes the this variable point to the newly created object.

3. It returns the newly created object

example:

function Person (first, last) {
this.first = first;
this.last = last;
}

var bob = new Person('Bob', 'Smith');

console.log(bob.first);
// Bob

console.log(bob.last);
// Smith