What is the difference between a function expression vs declaration in JavaScript? [duplicate]

What is the difference between the following lines of code?

//Function declaration
function foo() { return 5; }

//Anonymous function expression
var foo = function() { return 5; }

//Named function expression
var foo = function foo() { return 5; }

• What is a named/anonymous function expression?
• What is a declared function?
• How do browsers deal with these constructs differently?

What do the responses to a similar question (var functionName = function() {} vs function functionName() {}) not get exactly right?

They’re actually really similar. How you call them is exactly the same.The difference lies in how the browser loads them into the execution context.

Function declarations load before any code is executed.

Function expressions load only when the interpreter reaches that line of code.

So if you try to call a function expression before it’s loaded, you’ll get an error! If you call a function declaration instead, it’ll always work, because no code can be called until all declarations are loaded.

Example: Function Expression

alert(foo()); // ERROR! foo wasn't loaded yet
var foo = function() { return 5; } 

Example: Function Declaration

alert(foo()); // Alerts 5. Declarations are loaded before any code can run.
function foo() { return 5; } 

As for the second part of your question:

var foo = function foo() { return 5; } is really the same as the other two. It’s just that this line of code used to cause an error in safari, though it no longer does.