Availability

JavaScript 1.0; enhanced in JavaScript 1.1

Synopsis

<input type="type"onclick="handler"> 
input.onclick

Description

The onclick property of an Input object specifies an event handler function that is invoked when the user clicks on the input element. It is not invoked when the click( ) method is called for the element.

Only form elements that are buttons invoke the onclick event handler. These are the Button, Checkbox, Radio, Reset, and Submit elements. Other form elements use the onchange event handler instead of onclick.

The initial value of the onclick property is a function containing the semicolon-separated JavaScript statements specified by the onclick attribute of the HTML tag that defined the object. When an event handler function is defined by an HTML attribute, it is executed in the scope of element rather than in the scope of the containing window.

In the Netscape 4 event model, the onclick handler function is passed an Event object as an argument. In the IE event model, no argument is passed, but the applicable Event object is available as the event property of the Window object that contains the element.

Note that the Reset and Submit elements perform a default action when clicked: they reset and submit, respectively, the form that contains them. You can use the onclick event handlers of each of these elements to perform actions in addition to these default actions. In JavaScript 1.1, you can also prevent these default actions by returning false. That is, if the onclick handler of a Reset button returns false, the form is not reset, and if the onclick handler of a Submit button returns false, the form is not submitted. Note that you do similar things with the onsubmit and onreset event handlers of the Form object itself.

Finally, note that the Link object also defines an onclick event handler.

See Also

Link.onclick; Chapter 19; EventListener, EventTarget, and MouseEvent in the DOM reference section