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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-03T11:11:35+00:00

Instead of writing return false; many times is there a way to set a

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Instead of writing return false; many times is there a way to set a collection of links such that if any of them are clicked the click function would return false;? I’d still like to have most links return true so showing code that would return true vs. return false would be particularly appreciated.

The goal is writing less code. I’d also like to know if this is a bad idea for reason I can’t understand.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The simpliest method is binding one event listener to the document, and checking for the target: http://jsfiddle.net/gKZ7q/

    document.addEventListener('click', function(e) {
    if (e.target.nodeName.toUpperCase() === 'A') e.preventDefault();
}, false);

    • For anchors with nested elements, you have to add an additional loop:

      var targ = e.target;
do {
    if (targ.nodeName.toUpperCase() === 'A') {
        e.preventDefault();
        break;
    }
} while ((targ = targ.parentNode) !== document.documentElement);
// document.body should be fine. Using document.documentElement in case
// that a fool places an anchor outside the <body>
    • Links can also be triggered through a key event.
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