PRB: HREF="#" with Event Code Behaves Differently

ID: Q190244

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) versions 4.0, 4.01, 5.0

SYMPTOMS

The following HTML statement, when clicked, will navigate to a new URL in Internet Explorer 3.0, but fails to do so in Internet Explorer 4.0:


<A HREF="#" onclick="window.location.href='http://www.microsoft.com';"> 
    problem repro </A>

CAUSE

Internet Explorer 4.0 waits until all events from the <A> tag are finished before processing the HREF attribute, so window.location.href will be overwritten by HREF="#".

RESOLUTION

Here are three ways to make this tag work as expected in Internet Explorer 4.0. See the "More Information" section for a complete code listing.

Add this statement to the code:
```
window.event.returnValue = false; 
```
This causes the onclick event to fire and not try to navigate to the HREF specified by the link.

Replace the HREF value with JavaScript:[code].

Eliminate HREF="#" and make it look like an anchor with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) by adding this style attribute to the anchor:
```
style="cursor:hand; text-decoration:underline; color:blue; font-family:times new roman" 
```

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

The following HTML code demonstrates the problem and the resolutions.


<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> title </TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<A HREF="#" onclick="window.location.href='http://www.microsoft.com';">
 problem repro </A>
<br>
<A HREF="#" onclick="window.location.href='http://www.microsoft.com';
   window.event.returnValue=false;">
   solution 1: add window.event.returnValue=false statement</A>
<br>
<A HREF="JavaScript:window.location.href='http://www.microsoft.com';">
   solution 2: replace HREF value with JavaScript:[code] </A>
<br>
<A onclick="window.location.href='http://www.microsoft.com';"
   onmouseover="window.status='http://www.microsoft.com';"
   onmouseout="window.status='';"
   style="cursor:hand; text-decoration:underline; color:blue;
   font-family:times new roman">
   solution 3: remove HREF attribute and use CSS </A>
</BODY>
</HTML>

REFERENCES

For more information, please see the MSDN Web Workshop:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/default.asp

For more information about Microsoft Scripting technologies, see the following Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbhtml kbIE400 kbIE401bug kbScript kbIE500
Version : WINDOWS:4.0,4.01
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb