Why does setTimeout fire twice in Chrome, but not IE or Firefox?

Question

Can someone tell me why the javascript function 'GenerateNewNumber' fires twice in Chrome, but not for IE or Firefox? Using Chrome 20.0.1132.57, IE9 and Firefox 13.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <title></title>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/App_JScript/jquery-1.4.4.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            $('a#RandomNumber').click(function () { initiateNewNumber(); });
        });

        function initiateNewNumber() {

            setTimeout('GenerateNewNumber();', 3000);
        }

        function GenerateNewNumber() {
            var randomnumber = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1123);
            document.getElementById('RandomNumber').innerHTML += '<br>' + 'Random Number is ' + randomnumber;
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <a id="RandomNumber" href="#">Click for Random Number</a>
</body>
</html>

I've searched through Stackoverflow, but can't find any suggestions which will help.

Thanks in advance.

Been working on this all morning, and as soon as I post it I figure it out :( I needed $('a#RandomNumber').click(function () { initiateNewNumber(); return false; }); — user199962, Jul 22 '12 at 00:59

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 22 '12 at 01:05

1

setTimeout expects a function as first parameter:

setTimeout(function() { GenerateNewNumber(); }, 3000);

answered Jul 22 '12 at 01:05

gronke

189
3

4

It's better to use a function, but using a string as code is supported : https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/window.setTimeout – jsoverson Jul 22 '12 at 01:07
1

And if all you are doing is calling a single function, you can supply it directly: `setTimeout(GenerateNewNumber, 3000);` – Dennis Jul 22 '12 at 01:12
That's right, Dennis. I wanted to make clear that there is a function passed as parameter. – gronke Jul 22 '12 at 01:39

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 22 '12 at 01:07

1

Try this

window.setTimeout(GenerateNewNumber, 3000);

answered Jul 22 '12 at 01:07

Tallboy

12,847
13
82
173

why did somebody down vote this? This is the correct way to pass a function. – JJ_Coder4Hire Feb 10 '14 at 05:31

Why does setTimeout fire twice in Chrome, but not IE or Firefox?

2 Answers2

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