Explaining JavaScript Closures Through a Bank Account Example

A DEV Community article explains closures in JavaScript as functions that retain access to variables from their outer scope after that scope has finished running. It illustrates the concept with a bank account example, where a balance variable stays private while inner deposit and balance-check functions can still read and update it. The piece walks through how the returned functions preserve access to the local variable without exposing it directly. It also outlines practical uses of closures, including data privacy, callbacks, function factories, and maintaining state. The article closes by defining a closure as a function together with its surrounding lexical environment.