---
title: The $ dollar sign | Advanced
contributors:
  - the-r3aper7
  - manucorporat
  - adamdbradley
  - saikatdas0790
  - anthonycaron
  - ubmit
  - literalpie
  - forresst
  - mhevery
  - AnthonyPAlicea
  - zanettin
  - mrhoodz
  - thejackshelton
  - hamatoyogi
updated_at: '2023-06-25T19:43:33Z'
created_at: '2023-03-20T23:45:13Z'
---

# The dollar `$` sign

Qwik splits up your application into many small pieces we call symbols. A component can be broken up into many symbols, so a symbol is smaller than a component. The splitting up is performed by the [Qwik Optimizer](../optimizer/index.mdx).

The `$` suffix is used to signal both the optimizer and the developer when this transformation occurs. As a developer, you need to understand that special rules apply whenever you see `$` (not all valid JavaScript is a valid Qwik Optimizer transform.)

## Compiler-time implications

The [optimizer](../optimizer/index.mdx) runs as a Vite plugin during bundling. The purpose of the Optimizer is to break up the application into many small lazy-loadable chunks. The Optimizer moves expressions (usually functions) into new files and leaves behind a reference pointing to where the expression was moved from.

The `$` tells the optimizer which functions to extract into a separate file and which ones to leave untouched. The optimizer does not keep an internal list of magic functions, instead, it solely relies on the `$` suffix to know which functions to transform. The system is extendable and developers can create their own `$` functions, such as `myCustomFunction$()`.

```tsx
import { component$ } from '@builder.io/qwik';

export default component$(() => {
  console.log('render');
  return <button onClick$={() => console.log('hello')}>Hello Qwik</button>;
});
```

The component above is split into multiple chunks thanks to the `$` syntax:

```js title="app.js"
import { componentQrl, qrl } from '@builder.io/qwik';

const App = /*#__PURE__*/ componentQrl(
  qrl(() => import('./app_component_akbu84a8zes.js'), 'App_component_AkbU84a8zes')
);

export { App };
```

```js title="app_component_akbu84a8zes.js"
import { jsx as _jsx } from '@builder.io/qwik/jsx-runtime';
import { qrl } from '@builder.io/qwik';
export const App_component_AkbU84a8zes = () => {
  console.log('render');
  return /*#__PURE__*/ _jsx('button', {
    onClick$: qrl(
      () => import('./app_component_button_onclick_01pegc10cpw'),
      'App_component_button_onClick_01pEgC10cpw'
    ),
    children: 'Hello Qwik',
  });
};
```

```js title="app_component_button_onclick_01pegc10cpw.js"
export const App_component_button_onClick_01pEgC10cpw = () => console.log('hello');
```

## Rules

The Optimizer uses `$` as a signal to extract the code. The developer needs to understand that the extraction comes with constraints and therefore special rules apply whenever the `$` is present. (Not all valid JavaScript code is valid code for the Optimizer.)

> The worst kind of code magic is the kind that's invisible to the developer.

### Allowed expressions

The first argument of any function that ends with `$` has certain restrictions:

#### Literals without local identifiers


```tsx
const bar = 'bar';
const foo = 'foo';

// Invalid expressions
foo$({ value: bar }); // it contains a local identifier "bar"
foo$(`Hello, ${bar}`); // it contains a local identifier "bar"
foo$(count + 1); // it contains a local identifier "count"
foo$(foo); // foo is not exported, so it's not importable

// Valid expressions
foo$(`Hello, bar`); // string literal without local identifiers
foo$({ value: 'stuff' }); // object literal without local identifiers
foo$(1 + 3); // expression without local identifiers
```


#### Importable identifiers


```tsx
// Invalid
const foo = 'foo';
foo$(foo); // foo is not exported, so it's not importable

// Valid
export const bar = 'bar';
foo$(bar);

// Valid
import { bar } from './bar';
foo$(bar);
```

#### Closures

For closures, the rules are a bit relaxed, and local identifiers can be referenced and captured.

> **RULE**: If a function lexically captures a variable (or parameter), that variable must be:
>
> 1. a `const` and
> 2. the value must be serializable.

##### Captured variables must be declared as a `const`.

**Invalid**

```tsx
component$(() => {
  let foo = 'value'; // variable is not a const
  return <div onClick$={() => console.log(foo)}/>
});
```

**Valid**

```tsx
component$(() => {
  const foo = 'value';
  return <div onClick$={() => console.log(foo)}/>
});
```

##### Local captured variables must be serializable

```tsx
// Invalid
component$(() => {
  const foo = new MyCustomClass(12); // MyCustomClass is not serializable
  return <div onClick$={() => console.log(foo)}/>
});

// Valid
component$(() => {
  const foo = { data: 12 };
  return <div onClick$={() => console.log(foo)}/>
});
```

##### Module-declared variables can be importable

If a function that is being extracted by the Optimizer refers to a top-level symbol, that symbol must either be imported or exported.

```tsx
// Invalid
const foo = new MyCustomClass(12);
component$(() => {
  // Foo is declared at the module level, but it's not exported
  console.log(foo);
});

// Valid
export const foo = new MyCustomClass(12);
component$(() => {
  console.log(foo);
});

// Valid
import { foo } from './foo';
component$(() => {
  console.log(foo);
});
```

## Deep dive

Let's look at the hypothetical problem of acting on a scroll event. You may be tempted to write the code like so:

```tsx
function onScroll(fn: () => void) {
  document.addEventListener('scroll', fn);
}
onScroll(() => alert('scroll'));
```

The problem with this approach is that the event handler is eagerly loaded, even if the scroll event never triggers. What is needed is a way to refer to code in a lazy loadable way.

The developer could write:

```tsx
export scrollHandler = () => alert('scroll');

onScroll(() => (await import('./some-chunk')).scrollHandler());
```

This works but is a lot of work. The developer is responsible for putting the code in a different file and hard coding the chunk name. Instead, we use the Optimizer to perform the work for us automatically. But we need a way to tell the Optimizer that we want to perform such a refactoring. We use `$()` as a marker function for this purpose.

```tsx
function onScroll(fnQrl: QRL<() => void>) {
  document.addEventListener('scroll', async () => {
    const fn = await fnQrl.resolve();
    fn();
  });
}

onScroll($(() => alert('scroll')));
```

The Optimizer will generate:

```tsx
onScroll(qrl('./chunk-a.js', 'onScroll_1'));
```

```tsx title="chunk-a.js"
export const onScroll_1 = () => alert('scroll');
```

1. All that the developer had to do was to wrap the function in the `$()` to signal to the Optimizer that the function should be moved to a new file and therefore be lazy-loaded.
2. The `onScroll` function had to be implemented slightly differently as it needs to take into account the fact that the `QRL` of the function needs to be loaded before it can be used. In practice using `QRL.resolve()` is rare in Qwik applications as the Qwik framework provides higher-level APIs that rarely expect the developer to work with `QRL.resolve()` directly.

However, wrapping code in `$()` is a bit inconvenient. For this reason, one can use `implicit$FirstArg()` to automatically perform the wrapping and type matching of the function taking the `QRL`. The function passed into `implicit$FirstArg()` should have a suffix of `Qrl`, and the result of that function should be set to a value with a suffix of `$`;

```tsx
const onScroll$ = implicit$FirstArg(onScrollQrl);

onScroll$(() => alert('scroll'));
```

Now the developer has an easy syntax for expressing that a particular function should be lazy-loaded.

## Symbol extraction

Assume that you have this code:

```tsx
export const MyComp = component$(() => {
  /* my component definition */
});
```

The Optimizer breaks the code up into two files:

The original file:

```tsx
const MyComp = component(qrl('./chunk-a.js', 'MyComp_onMount'));
```

and a chunk

```tsx title="chunk-a.js"
export const MyComp_onMount = () => {
  /* my component definition */
};
```

The result of Optimizer is that the `MyComp`'s `onMount` method was extracted into a new file. There are a few benefits to doing this:

- A Parent component can refer to `MyComp` without pulling in `MyComp` implementation details.
- The application now has more entry points, giving the bundler more ways to chunk up the codebase.

## Capturing the lexical scope

The Optimizer extracts expressions (usually functions) into new files and leaves behind a `QRL` pointing to the lazy-loaded location.

Let's look at a simple case:

```tsx
export const Greeter = component$(() => {
  return <div>Hello World!</div>;
});
```

this will result in:

```tsx
const Greeter = component(qrl('./chunk-a.js', 'Greeter_onMount'));
```

```tsx title="chunk-a.js"
const Greeter_onMount = () => {
  return qrl('./chunk-b.js', 'Greeter_onRender');
};
```

```tsx title="chunk-b.js"
const Greeter_onRender = () => <span>Hello World!</span>;
```

The above is for simple cases where the extracted function closure does not capture any variables. Let's look at a more complicated case where the extracted function closure lexically captures variables.

```tsx
export const Greeter = component$((props: { name: string }) => {
  const salutation = 'Hello';

  return (
    <div>
      {salutation} {props.name}!
    </div>
  );
});
```

The naive way to extract functions will not work.

```tsx
const Greeter = component(qrl('./chunk-a.js', 'Greeter_onMount'));
```

```tsx title="chunk-a.js"
const Greeter_onMount = (props) => {
  const salutation = 'Hello';
  return qrl('./chunk-b.js', 'Greeter_onRender');
};
```

```tsx title="chunk-b.js"
const Greeter_onRender = () => (
  <div>
    {salutation} {props.name}!
  </div>
);
```

The issue can be seen in `chunk-b.js`. The extracted function refers to `salutation` and `props`, which are no longer in the lexical scope of the function. For this reason, the generated code must be slightly different.

```tsx title="chunk-a.js"
const Greeter_onMount = (props) => {
  const salutation = 'Hello';
  return qrl('./chunk-b.js', 'Greeter_onRender', [salutation, props]);
};
```

```tsx title="chunk-b.js"
const Greeter_onRender = () => {
  const [salutation, props] = useLexicalScope();

  return (
    <div>
      {salutation} {props.name}!
    </div>
  );
};
```

Notice two changes:

1. The `QRL` in `Greeter_onMount` now stores the `salutation` and `props`. This performs the role of capturing the constants inside closures.
2. The generated closure `Greeter_onRender` now has a preamble which restores the `salutation` and `props` (`const [salutation, props] = useLexicalScope()`.)

The ability for the Optimizer (and Qwik runtime) to capture lexically scoped constants significantly improves which functions can be extracted into lazy-loaded resources. It is a powerful tool for breaking up complex applications into smaller lazy-loadable chunks.
