<a href=”#” onclick=”dosomething();”>click me</a>While this works, the browser thinks you clicked on an anchor link and may "jump" the browser view port to the top left corner of the content.
A common way to work around this is to have the method
dosomething(); return false. By doing so the browser should short-circuit the event model and not enact the href call. I say should because everyone's favorite browser - IE6 - does not. IE6 does not pass the event to the function, calling false does not stop the event propagation.This can work:
<a href=”javascript:;” onclick=”dosomething();”>click me</a>But it may cause problems. This call propagates an event call specific to IE and can break certain functionality.
A safer way is the following:
<a href=”#” onclick=”dosomething(); event.returnValue=false; return false;”>click me</a>This works perfectly. The event will not propagate and the href action will not occur.
I wish I could give credit to the individual who pointed this out to me, but I can't find the link any more.
Props to Web Developers Journal for providing me with the original concept.
