What is the difference between function factories and closures in JavaScript?

What is the difference between function factories and closures in JavaScript?

Function factories are functions that return other functions, while closures are functions that remember their lexical scope.

Can you give me an example of a function factory?

Sure! Here's a simple function factory:

function makeCounter() {
    let count = 0;
    return function() {
        count++;
        return count;
    };
}
const counter = makeCounter();
console.log(counter()); // 1
console.log(counter()); // 2

And how does a closure work in this context?

In the example, the inner function forms a closure that captures the count variable, allowing it to maintain its state across calls.

What are some practical uses of closures?

Closures are useful for data encapsulation, creating private variables, and implementing function currying.