Basic JavaScript function

Question

just starting with JavaScript and trying to teach myself through simple exercises. I have made this very simple little program which works as expected:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>

        <title>Exercise</title>

        <script type="text/javascript">

            function doSomething(){

            alert("you clicked the text");

            }

        </script>

    </head>

    <body>

        <p id="text" onclick="doSomething()"> This is some text </p>

    </body>

</html>

When you click the text, the alert appears. Then I have modified it slightly to this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>

        <title>Exercise 2</title>

        <script type="text/javascript">

            var whenClicked = document.getElementById("text");

            whenClicked.onclick = doSomething();

            function doSomething(){

                alert("you clicked the text");
            }

        </script>

    </head>

    <body>

        <p id="text"> This is some text </p>

    </body>

</html>

Expecting it to work exactly in the same way, but when I load the document on the web browser, the alert appears straight away, without me clicking on the text. Why is this happening? Thanks P.

(Once you fix that, your next problem is explained [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14028959/why-does-jquery-or-a-dom-method-such-as-getelementbyid-not-find-the-element)) — Quentin, Sep 02 '16 at 10:18
Great @Quentin for mentioning what'll be his immediate next question — Mr.7, Sep 02 '16 at 10:23

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 02 '16 at 10:17

0

there´s on little error in your code. you have to change:

whenClicked.onclick = doSomething();

to

whenClicked.onclick = doSomething;

this is happening because when the brackets are there the function get´s executed imidiatly

answered Sep 02 '16 at 10:17

Willi Pasternak

191
12

Basic JavaScript function

1 Answers1