Question

How to prevent default in an onclick method? I have a method in which I am also passing a custom value

<a href="#" onclick="callmymethod(24)">Call</a>

function callmymethod(myVal){
    //doing custom things with myVal
    //here I want to prevent default
}

Answer 1

Let your callback return false and pass that on to the onclick handler:

<a href="#" onclick="return callmymethod(24)">Call</a>

function callmymethod(myVal){
    //doing custom things with myVal
    //here I want to prevent default
    return false;
}

---

To create maintainable code, however, you should abstain from using “inline Javascript” (i.e.: code that’s directly within an element’s tag) and modify an element’s behavior via an included Javascript source file (it’s called unobtrusive Javascript).

The mark-up:

<a href="#" id="myAnchor">Call</a>

The code (separate file):

// Code example using Prototype JS API
$('myAnchor').observe('click', function(event) {
    Event.stop(event); // suppress default click behavior, cancel the event
    /* your onclick code goes here */
});