Question

<script type="text/javascript">
    var timeout;
    function doAjaxFunc(){
        alert("called");
        $.ajax({
                type: "POST",
                url: "searchSuggest.php",
                data: dataString,
                cache: false,
                success: function(data){$("#display").html(data).show();}});
    }
    $(document).ready(function(){
        $(".search").keyup(function() 
        {
            var searchbox = $(this).val();
            var dataString = 'searchword='+ searchbox;
            if(searchbox=='')
            {
                $("#display").hide();
            }
            else
            {
                if(timeout) {
                    clearTimeout(timeout);
                    timeout = null;
                }

              timeout= setTimeout(doAjaxFunc(), 5000);
            }
            return false;
        });
    });
    </script>

Using this, what I think is the javascript should call function doAjaxFunc() after five second of key is typed. but it is not waiting that period of time. What should I do to make it wait 5 seconds before doAjaxFunc() is executed.

Answer 1

You are CALLING doAjaxFunc and setting its return value to be the function to be called after five seconds.

Remove the (): timeout= setTimeout(doAjaxFunc, 5000) and it will all magically work.