What's the purpose of this Javascript variable?

Question

What does this do, and why is it declared this way?

   var shroom = 'data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhgACAAPcAAAAAAEvlS////wAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAP8ALAAAAACAAIAAAAj/AP8JHEiwoMGDCAkCWMiwocOHECNKZJiwosWLGDNanMixo8eFGkOKHJnxo8mTFEmqXEkSpUuPLGPK3PiyZsSZOHMKtMnToc6fMXsKBQC0aMuhPI0aFSqgqdOmAaJKnUo1wNOnQpVqZHoVatWvUbs2zaoVI9euYMGKFUC2LE2ea9N+XdvWbcKzV+VWpdvT7lubcfVO5ZvU792egQWHFVvXcEG8TxVLJWzT8cm1mMVKXpy5M1uTS0169rzZ6ujMJ0N/PJ25NGvMqYtefq15M23GoGWLvp3XNm+suYHO/u1VMnGnsYXvPu76+OePqj06F9D8ePKVJ9WyLl19NNjrF7PP/93O3Tj5quD/dtR+urz59l/TVxS/97x7ua+/Bzdrkr33+3rlF99+4fU3HnwApiUgegSqx5F/pCWooH1TyXfYRxB2JuGECFJlIUIRJbbhiCRydtVNW0EkYoksAkhZQyGFWFuLNLr3YkolqThjjTy+dyJEMeqIVo9ECnYjSCk+tGKRTA6G20NBKrljk1Sa1hWKOUo5ZJVVHknUQcP95+N0kfl2GlJaiqkYmVMGyBqaDi24Jpu9jdkZnA3JaSSdZdqJGp4L6ekmn8XNeSagAAiKH6GF7nkooIpySGh3niGaKIWDTmrmaJDxliGjEdZn3XLEfQpqawcSF+Zvpp66pIm/rf/qaaquakgrb7Le1mqtdVI1Xa607cqrU8JySiqrtw67pa/OARupsraKquqxs0oL7bJOjrqac8UO2+2d1Oqa7LWNTtZsuMGOS+63f27LnLrXsgsbus+S2yasuNKLKb72Ugfvo9Jx+6+y8nopY4eO9kvsppXqi22mCvvr57zuqplwxJSCW3GohkYscccNbxwtyApn3G7ACENcMsMao2yxyv2aTLHLHF+88sQGQ8TlqVzS1yTPVfrMJNBUCl0k0U0aTSTSTCrdI9NFOs0j1ERKXSPVPVrNoKVce1Sa1h52LfZEXxso2dho67wZ2BWm7fZCZWO49ttux+313HSjbfd6eOf/LfbeD/btN9eAd/3awcamGfLgKB0uZOJxvsm4S44r3nKekk/u7JORA4y555p3VHnnkH9eeugcjW764qtfjvpEqjMUe6CZv5567a2fnPvMcILo8Om0gx78tNAlSXO+lusu+7nFZ3n8bYizvry2MBkvOvOkSz98rA3O97v2lwofPvHVO3899bt7+Wv3Fz5PW/Sub498+fyJDP3j4K/fPHb4e8wolj+Bn//4BECdCHCAbCpgTg6IQP35RDfJa6ADYQTB7EmQTArECQMvyD0oVTB9HJwfBZVjvxACZ38G/N4FPxQUFUqQhSzZnAlhyL8SmnAs7JOJDENIQ5XskIM9PIoNLm8YRA3arneOAdMR0ZREJS5xKE00yBOREsXHTLExUbwiFpuoxb5UcSBdLAxLAgIAOw%3D%3D';

For future reference, questions on Stack Overflow has to be in the form of a question, not commands. You can still improve your question by providing some context like where you found this particular code snippet. — In silico, Jul 11 '11 at 23:37

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 11 '11 at 23:36

7

It represents a GIF image encoded in base 64.

answered Jul 11 '11 at 23:36

Rio

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 12 '11 at 00:00

1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_URI_scheme

answered Jul 12 '11 at 00:00

Alex Dow

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 12 '11 at 00:29

It's a Data URI, which is a file encoded in a URL. More info can be found on wikipedia. Here's an online tool used to create them: http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/cgi/data/data

I believe IE doesn't have total support for Data URIs, so they're not too commonly used. If IE did, though, they'd be great for icons and small graphics embedded right into style sheets.

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

0

Here is a link to encode base 64 with Javascript

Base 64 with Javascript

edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

Community

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answered Jul 12 '11 at 00:31

Ahmet Can Güven

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What's the purpose of this Javascript variable?

4 Answers4