javascript - What do parentheses surrounding an object/function/class declaration mean?

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Answer 1

It is a self-executing anonymous function. The first set of parentheses contain the expressions to be executed, and the second set of parentheses executes those expressions.

It is a useful construct when trying to hide variables from the parent namespace. All the code within the function is contained in the private scope of the function, meaning it can't be accessed at all from outside the function, making it truly private.

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_%28computer_science%29

http://peter.michaux.ca/articles/javascript-namespacing