History

This warning has existed in three forms across the three main linters. It was introduced in the original version of JSLint and has remained (in a way) in all three tools ever since.

• In JSLint the warning given is "Missing name in function statement"

• In JSHint the warning given has always been "Missing name in function declaration"

• In ESLint the Esprima parser fails to parse the code so the message given is the more generic "Unexpected token ("

The situations that produce the warning have not changed despite changes to the text of the warning itself.

When do I get this error?

The "Missing name in function statement" error, and the alternative "Missing name in function declaration" error, is thrown when JSLint or JSHint encounters the function keyword, where it would normally be parsed as a statement, followed immediately by an opening parenthesis. In the following example we attempt to define a function but forget to give it an identifier:

function () {
    "use strict";
    return "something";
}

Why do I get this error?

This error is raised to highlight a fatal JavaScript syntax error. Your code will not run unless you fix this issue. The ECMAScript grammar states that a function statement (usually referred to as a function declaration) has to have an identifier (ES5 §13):

FunctionDeclaration :
    function Identifier ( FormalParameterList_opt) { FunctionBody }

Notice that the Identifier part of the grammer is not optional. Compare this to the grammar for a function expression:

FunctionExpression :
    function Identifier_opt ( FormalParameterListopt) { FunctionBody }

This time, notice that the identifier is optional. This optional identifier in function expressions is what makes it possible to create anonymous functions. However, in our example above, the code is parsed as a statement rather than an expression. To fix the issue, give the function an identifier:

function example() {
    "use strict";
    return "something";
}

Alternatively, make sure the code is parsed as an expression, rather than a statement. There are numerous way of doing this, but in our example the only one that really makes sense is to assign the anonymous function to a variable (don't forget the semi-colon):

var example = function () {
    "use strict";
    return "something";
}

In JSHint 1.0.0 and above you have the ability to ignore any warning with a special option syntax. The identifier of this warning is W025. This means you can tell JSHint to not issue this warning with the /*jshint -W025 */ directive.