Alternative to # pound sign hash tag for blank href?

Question

So, I'm working on a site at the moment that has a jquery onClick function. Well, the link is a simple href="#".

Well, every time it is clicked,

The # sign appends to the URL
The site navigates to the top of the page

Is there a better alternative, or am I doing something wrong?

possible duplicate of [Alternative to when the anchor tag only triggers a jQuery action without redirecting the user?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4224920/alternative-to-a-href-when-the-anchor-tag-only-triggers-a-jquery-action-wi) — Kate Gregory, Jan 23 '13 at 22:21

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 02 '12 at 17:08

7

In your click handler, add return false;.

answered Feb 02 '12 at 17:08

Daniel A. White

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score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 17:09

3

Your onclick function needs have a return false in it. Or you can do this :

<a href="#" onclick="doSomething();return false;">click</a>

answered Feb 02 '12 at 17:09

Mike Park

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score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 31 '13 at 00:38

2

I use this as an alternative

<a href="javascript:void(0)" onclick="doSomething();return false;">click</a>

answered Oct 31 '13 at 00:38

Sumair Zafar

98
8

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 03 '12 at 16:49

A little bit late, but if you're using jQuery, in your event handler you can use

$("#myButton").on("click", function(e)
{
    // Whatever the button should do

    e.preventDefault();
});

The e.preventDefault() does exactly that, it prevents the default behaviour, that would be to scroll to the top of the page (which is what the # symbol represents on its own).

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 17:09

0

The hash follow by an id is a link to an anchor tag with said id. If the anchor tag doesn't exist, it certainly could explain why it's hitting the top of the page.

answered Feb 02 '12 at 17:09

OnResolve

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Alternative to # pound sign hash tag for blank href?

5 Answers5