How to Prevent Event Propagation in JavaScript using Inline onclick?

Preventing Event Propagation with Inline Onclick Attribute

Event propagation refers to the cascading effect of events through the DOM tree. When an event occurs on an inner element, it typically bubbles up to its parent elements. In certain scenarios, it may be desirable to stop this propagation to prevent unintended behavior.

Consider the following HTML code:

<div onclick="alert('you clicked the header')" class="header">
  <span onclick="alert('you clicked inside the header');">something inside the header</span>
</div>

When a user clicks anywhere within the element, both the span's and the div's click handlers will fire. However, we may want to prevent the div's click event from being triggered when the user interacts with its child element.

To achieve this, we can utilize the event.stopPropagation() method. This function effectively stops the event from bubbling up to its parent elements. Here's the modified code:

<span onclick="event.stopPropagation(); alert('you clicked inside the header');">something inside the header</span>

Now, when the user clicks on the element, only its own click event will fire. The div's click event will no longer be triggered.

IE Compatibility

Note that older versions of Internet Explorer (IE) do not natively support event.stopPropagation(). Instead, we need to use window.event.cancelBubble = true:

<span onclick="window.event.cancelBubble = true; alert('you clicked inside the header');">something inside the header</span>

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