Question about which is the correct style of JavaScript to pass to FORM's onSubmit attribute

[Sean Dockery]

Which is the following is correct?

a) <form ... onSubmit="retur n checkData()">

b) <form ... onSubmit="retur n checkData();">

c) <form ... onSubmit="check Data()">

d) <form ... onSubmit="check Data();">

....where checkData is a JavaScript function that returns a true or false
value.

It seems that Internet Explorer accepts all of the above, but I'm not
taking that to mean that all are correct.

I've attempted to search the W3 web site on the terms form and onsubmit,
but the documentation refers to the attribute value as being an intrinsic
event (without giving any examples). The archived mailing lists contain
messages which demonstrate all of the options that I've provided above. I
gave up after the forth page of search results because of the number of
conflicting examples.

Does anyone know which is correct?

Thanks for your precious time.

[Michael Winter]

On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 15:51:19 GMT, Sean Dockery <sd******@secur ac.net>
wrote:

Which is the following is correct?

a) <form ... onSubmit="retur n checkData()">

b) <form ... onSubmit="retur n checkData();">

c) <form ... onSubmit="check Data()">

d) <form ... onSubmit="check Data();">

...where checkData is a JavaScript function that returns a true or false
value.
All of them are correct in that they will result in the call of checkData.
However, only a) and b) will actually affect whether the form is submitted.

The content of an intrinsic event attribute becomes the body of an
anonymous function:

/* Note that IE doesn't pass an event argument. It uses a global
* variable of the same name. Either way, you can still use:
*
* on<event>="myFu nction(event)"
*
* to access the event object.
*/
formElement.ons ubmit = function(event) {
/* Value in onsubmit attribute */
};

Obviously, if you don't include a return statement, no value will actually
be returned when this anonymous function exits.

With regards to the semicolon, the same rules apply as normal: semicolons
are generally optional, but it's good practice to include them. If you had
two or more statements/expressions to evaluate, a semicolon would be
necessary to separate them.

The final point I like to make is that it's simpler to pass a reference to
the FORM when it is called, rather than obtain one later. That is:

<form ... onsubmit="retur n checkData(this) ;">

function checkData(form) {
/* You can now use form, rather than
* document.forms['formName']
*/
}
It seems that Internet Explorer accepts all of the above, but I'm not
taking that to mean that all are correct.

As I said, they are all syntactically correct, but the second two are
probably not what you want.

[snip]

Hope that helps,
Mike

--
Michael Winter
Replace ".invalid" with ".uk" to reply by e-mail.

[Sean Dockery]

Thanks, Michael. Your response was extremely helpful, and exactly what I
was looking for.

"Michael Winter" <M.******@bluey onder.co.invali d> wrote in message
news:opshiklmsx x13kvk@atlantis ...

On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 15:51:19 GMT, Sean Dockery <sd******@secur ac.net>
wrote:

Which is the following is correct?

a) <form ... onSubmit="retur n checkData()">

b) <form ... onSubmit="retur n checkData();">

c) <form ... onSubmit="check Data()">

d) <form ... onSubmit="check Data();">

...where checkData is a JavaScript function that returns a true or false
value.

All of them are correct in that they will result in the call of
checkData. However, only a) and b) will actually affect whether the form
is submitted.

The content of an intrinsic event attribute becomes the body of an
anonymous function:

/* Note that IE doesn't pass an event argument. It uses a global
* variable of the same name. Either way, you can still use:
*
* on<event>="myFu nction(event)"
*
* to access the event object.
*/
formElement.ons ubmit = function(event) {
/* Value in onsubmit attribute */
};

Obviously, if you don't include a return statement, no value will
actually be returned when this anonymous function exits.

With regards to the semicolon, the same rules apply as normal: semicolons
are generally optional, but it's good practice to include them. If you
had two or more statements/expressions to evaluate, a semicolon would be
necessary to separate them.

The final point I like to make is that it's simpler to pass a reference
to the FORM when it is called, rather than obtain one later. That is:

<form ... onsubmit="retur n checkData(this) ;">

function checkData(form) {
/* You can now use form, rather than
* document.forms['formName']
*/
}

It seems that Internet Explorer accepts all of the above, but I'm not
taking that to mean that all are correct.

As I said, they are all syntactically correct, but the second two are
probably not what you want.

[snip]

Hope that helps,
Mike

--
Michael Winter
Replace ".invalid" with ".uk" to reply by e-mail.