HTML anchor tag with Javascript onclick event

smartkid picture smartkid · Sep 8, 2011 · Viewed 496.2k times · Source

On using Google I found that they are using onclick events in anchor tags.

In more option in google header part, it looks like normal a tag, but onclicking it doesn't get redirected but opened a menu. Normally when using

<a href='more.php' onclick='show_more_menu()'>More >>></a>

It usually goes to 'more.php' without firing show_more_menu(), but I have show a menu in that page itself. How to do like google?

Answer

TJHeuvel picture TJHeuvel · Sep 8, 2011

If your onclick function returns false the default browser behaviour is cancelled. As such:

<a href='http://www.google.com' onclick='return check()'>check</a>

<script type='text/javascript'>

function check()
{
    return false;
}

</script>

Either way, whether google does it or not isn't of much importance. It's cleaner to bind your onclick functions within javascript - this way you separate your HTML from other code.