EventTarget.removeEventListener()
The EventTarget.removeEventListener()
method removes the event listener previously registered with EventTarget.addEventListener()
.
Syntax
<code>target.removeEventListener(type, listener[, options]); </code>target.removeEventListener(type, listener[, useCapture]);
Parameters
type
- A string representing the event type to remove.
listener
- The
EventListener
function to remove from the event target. - options Optional
- An options object that specifies characteristics about the event listener. The available options are:
capture
: ABoolean
that indicates that events of this type will be dispatched to the registeredlistener
before being dispatched to anyEventTarget
beneath it in the DOM tree.passive
: ABoolean
indicating that thelistener
will never callpreventDefault()
. If it does, the user agent should ignore it and generate a console warning.-
mozSystemGroup
: Available only in code running in XBL or in Firefox' chrome, it is aBoolean
defining if the listener is added to the system group.
useCapture
Optional- Specifies whether the
EventListener
to be removed is registered as a capturing listener or not. If this parameter is absent, a default value offalse
is assumed. - If a listener is registered twice, one with capture and one without, remove each one separately. Removal of a capturing listener does not affect a non-capturing version of the same listener, and vice versa.
useCapture
was required in most major browsers' early versions. If broad compatibility is desired, you should always provide the useCapture
parameter.Return Value
Void.
Notes
If an EventListener
is removed from an EventTarget
while it is processing an event, it will not be triggered by the current actions. An EventListener
will not be invoked for the event it was registered for after being removed, however it can be reattached.
Calling removeEventListener()
with arguments that do not identify any currently registered EventListener
on the EventTarget
has no effect.
Example
This example shows how to add a click
-based event listener and remove a mouseover
-based event listener.
var body = document.querySelector('body'), clickTarget = document.getElementById('click-target'), mouseOverTarget = document.getElementById('mouse-over-target'), toggle = false; function makeBackgroundYellow() { 'use strict'; if (toggle) { body.style.backgroundColor = 'white'; } else { body.style.backgroundColor = 'yellow'; } toggle = !toggle; } clickTarget.addEventListener('click', makeBackgroundYellow, false ); mouseOverTarget.addEventListener('mouseover', function () { 'use strict'; clickTarget.removeEventListener('click', makeBackgroundYellow, false ); });
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
DOM The definition of 'EventTarget.removeEventListener()' in that specification. |
Living Standard | |
DOM4 The definition of 'EventTarget.removeEventListener()' in that specification. |
Recommendation | |
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Events Specification The definition of 'EventTarget.removeEventListener()' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Initial definition |
Browser compatibility
Feature | Chrome | Firefox (Gecko) | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari (WebKit) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | 1.0[1][2] | 1.0 (1.7 or earlier)[3] | 9.0 | 7[4] | 1.0[1] |
useCapture made optional |
(Yes) | 6.0 | 9.0 | 11.60 | (Yes) |
options parameter |
49.0 |
Feature | Android | Android Webview | Firefox Mobile (Gecko) | IE Mobile | Opera Mobile | Safari Mobile | Chrome for Android |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | 1.0[1] | (Yes)[2] | 1.0 (1)[3] | 9.0 | 6.0[4] | 1.0[1] | (Yes)[2] |
useCapture made optional |
? | (Yes) | (Yes) | ||||
options parameter |
No support | 49.0 | 49.0 |
[1] Although WebKit explicitly added "[optional]
" to the useCapture
parameter for Safari 5.1 and Chrome 13, it had been working before the change.
[2] Before Chrome 49, the type and listener parameters were optional.
[2] Prior to Firefox 6, the browser would throw an exception if the useCapture
parameter was not explicitly false
. Prior to Gecko 9.0 (Firefox 9.0 / Thunderbird 9.0 / SeaMonkey 2.6), addEventListener()
would throw an exception if the listener parameter was null
; now the method returns without error, but without doing anything.
[4] Opera 11.60 made the useCapture
parameter optional (source).
[5] For backwards compatibility, browsers that support options
allow the third parameter to be either options
or Boolean
.
Polyfill to support older browsers
addEventListener()
and removeEventListener()
are not present in older browsers. You can work around this by inserting the following code at the beginning of your scripts, allowing the use of addEventListener()
and removeEventListener()
in implementations that do not natively support it. However, this method will not work on Internet Explorer 7 or earlier, since extending the Element.prototype was not supported until Internet Explorer 8.
if (!Element.prototype.addEventListener) { var oListeners = {}; function runListeners(oEvent) { if (!oEvent) { oEvent = window.event; } for (var iLstId = 0, iElId = 0, oEvtListeners = oListeners[oEvent.type]; iElId < oEvtListeners.aEls.length; iElId++) { if (oEvtListeners.aEls[iElId] === this) { for (iLstId; iLstId < oEvtListeners.aEvts[iElId].length; iLstId++) { oEvtListeners.aEvts[iElId][iLstId].call(this, oEvent); } break; } } } Element.prototype.addEventListener = function (sEventType, fListener /*, useCapture (will be ignored!) */) { if (oListeners.hasOwnProperty(sEventType)) { var oEvtListeners = oListeners[sEventType]; for (var nElIdx = -1, iElId = 0; iElId < oEvtListeners.aEls.length; iElId++) { if (oEvtListeners.aEls[iElId] === this) { nElIdx = iElId; break; } } if (nElIdx === -1) { oEvtListeners.aEls.push(this); oEvtListeners.aEvts.push([fListener]); this["on" + sEventType] = runListeners; } else { var aElListeners = oEvtListeners.aEvts[nElIdx]; if (this["on" + sEventType] !== runListeners) { aElListeners.splice(0); this["on" + sEventType] = runListeners; } for (var iLstId = 0; iLstId < aElListeners.length; iLstId++) { if (aElListeners[iLstId] === fListener) { return; } } aElListeners.push(fListener); } } else { oListeners[sEventType] = { aEls: [this], aEvts: [ [fListener] ] }; this["on" + sEventType] = runListeners; } }; Element.prototype.removeEventListener = function (sEventType, fListener /*, useCapture (will be ignored!) */) { if (!oListeners.hasOwnProperty(sEventType)) { return; } var oEvtListeners = oListeners[sEventType]; for (var nElIdx = -1, iElId = 0; iElId < oEvtListeners.aEls.length; iElId++) { if (oEvtListeners.aEls[iElId] === this) { nElIdx = iElId; break; } } if (nElIdx === -1) { return; } for (var iLstId = 0, aElListeners = oEvtListeners.aEvts[nElIdx]; iLstId < aElListeners.length; iLstId++) { if (aElListeners[iLstId] === fListener) { aElListeners.splice(iLstId, 1); } } }; }
See also
License
© 2016 Mozilla Contributors
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-us/docs/web/api/eventtarget/removeeventlistener