What's the purpose of starting semi colon at beginning of JavaScript?
<blockquote>
  <p><strong>Possible Duplicate:</strong><br>
  <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1873983/what-does-the-leading-semicolon-in-javascript-libraries-do">What does the leading semicolon in JavaScript libraries do?</a>  </p>
</blockquote>



<p>I have noticed a lot of jQuery plugins start with </p>

<pre><code>;(function(){ /* something in here */ })();
</code></pre>

<p>I just wondered what the beginning semi-colon was for, as well as the empty parentheses at the end.</p>
