Web/API/GlobalEventHandlers/onclick

The onclick property of the GlobalEventHandlers mixin is the EventHandler for processing click events on a given element.

The click event is raised when the user clicks on an element. It fires after the mousedown and mouseup events, in that order.

Note: When using the click event to trigger an action, also consider adding this same action to the keydown event, to allow the use of that same action by people who don't use a mouse or a touch screen.

Syntax

target.onclick = functionRef;

Value

functionRef is a function name or a function expression. The function receives a MouseEvent object as its sole argument. Within the function, this will be the object that onclick was bound too (which will also match event.currentTarget)

Only one onclick handler can be assigned to an object at a time. You may prefer to use the EventTarget.addEventListener() method instead, since it's more flexible.

Examples

Detecting clicks

This example simply changes the color of an element when it's clicked upon.

HTML

<div id="demo">Click here</div>

JavaScript

document.getElementById('demo').onclick = function changeContent() {

   document.getElementById('demo').innerHTML = "Help me";
   document.getElementById('demo').style = "Color: red";

}

Getting the coordinates of clicks

This example displays the coordinates at which the most recent mouse button click occurred.

HTML

<p>Click anywhere in this example.</p>
<p id="log"></p>

JavaScript

let log = document.getElementById('log');

document.onclick = inputChange;

function inputChange(e) {
  log.textContent = `Position: (${e.clientX}, ${e.clientY})`;
}

Specification

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of 'onclick' in that specification.	Living Standard

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
onclick	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 9	Opera Full support 9	Safari Full support 3	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support  

Full support

See also

• click event
• Related event handlers
  • GlobalEventHandlers.onauxclick
  • GlobalEventHandlers.ondblclick

GlobalEventHandlers.onclick by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.