When passing data to a function in JavaScript, what are these data values called?

In JavaScript, when you pass data to a function, the values you provide are referred to as arguments. This terminology distinguishes the actual data that is sent into the function from parameters, which are the variables listed in the function's definition that represent those arguments.

Arguments are critical in enabling functions to operate with dynamic input, allowing for more versatile and reusable code. For instance, if you define a function to calculate the area of a rectangle, you could pass in different lengths and widths as arguments each time you call the function, allowing it to compute areas for various rectangles based on the values provided.

In contrast, parameters are the placeholder names defined in the function signature that hold these argument values. For example, in a function defined as function rectangleArea(length, width), length and width are the parameters. When you call this function with specific values, those values become the arguments.

Attributes usually refer to properties or characteristics of an object in object-oriented programming, and variables can refer to any named storage location in programming rather than specifically to function input.