Prevent Closure Compiler From Duplicating String

I'm using Google's Closure compiler to shrink my JS. There are several places in my code where I have a repeated string, e.g. (function($){ $('.bat').append('

the red car

Solution 1:

This behavior is documented here:

http://code.google.com/p/closure-compiler/wiki/FAQ#Closure_Compiler_inlined_all_my_strings,_which_made_my_code_size

However, one approach I've used to avoid when I have add a very large string that is worth deduplicating is to wrap the value in a function:

const getCssStyleSheetText = () => "...";

and to call that function when I need the text. The compiler uses a different heuristic when inlining functions and will only inline a function if it estimates that it will reduce code size. Therefore a function returning a string will be inlined if it is called once but left alone if it is called many times.

Ideally, the compiler would be a little more nuanced about inlining strings but in general the approach it takes works out well enough.