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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-14T18:35:22+00:00

I’m trying to create a fairly simple piece of JavaScript that displays a random

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I’m trying to create a fairly simple piece of JavaScript that displays a random image from an array each time the page loads. I need to figure out a way to get this running without adding code to the body tag. Is there a way to accomplish this without, say, an onload function placed in the body tag?

Here’s what I have that relies on the onLoad:

    ImageSwitch=new Array();
    ImageSwitch[0]='1.jpg';
    ImageSwitch[1]='2.jpg';
    ImageSwitch[2]='3.jpg';
    ImageSwitch[3]='4.jpg';

    function swapImage() 
    {
        document.getElementById("theImage").setAttribute("src", ImageSwitch[

Math.round(Math.random()*3)])
    }

Any alternative ideas to accomplish this?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Wombleton’s answer is what I would do. However, there is another way to do it. In the body markup, wherever you are going to put that random image, put a script that does a document.write with the markup for the image. Make sure you have an array of image URLs and substitute, like so:

    <html>
<head>
<title>Test</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
  var imageURLs = [
       "http://www.myserver.com/images/image1.png"
     , "http://www.myserver.com/images/image2.png"
     , "http://www.myserver.com/images/image3.png"
  ];
  function getImageTag() {
    var img = '<img src=\"';
    var randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * imageURLs.length);
    img += imageURLs[randomIndex];
    img += '\" alt=\"Some alt text\"/>';
    return img;
  }
</script>
</head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
  document.write(getImageTag());
</script>
</body>
</html>

    Again, this is not ideal, but is useful if you don’t want to use any kind of onload event, not just the one you put in the <body> tag.

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