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Should you use named or anonymous functions for event listeners in JavaScript?

Named functions. They can be removed with removeEventListener (you need the same reference), produce better stack traces, and are easier to debug. Anonymous functions cannot be removed and show as <anonymous> in traces.

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More FAQs in Best Practices for Callbacks in JavaScript

Prefer promises or async/await for new code. Use named functions for removable listeners. Handle errors (Node.js convention). Keep nesting shallow. Remove listeners when done. Use event delegation for dynamic children. Avoid closing over large objects.

Use promises (chain .then calls) or async/await (flatten to synchronous-looking code). If you must use callbacks, extract them into named functions to keep nesting shallow. Or use a library like async.js for control flow.

The Node.js convention: the first argument is an error. Always check if (err) first and handle it. Never ignore the error argument. In promises, use .catch. In async/await, use try/catch.

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