Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

JavaScript

.preventDefault();

Here is a working script that prevents default action of a clicked link. My question is why we need the "event" in the function: "function( event )"? works fine with out it - "function()".... Is there a purpose to it?

$("#imageGallery a").click(function( event ) {
  event.preventDefault();
});

1 Answer

Markus Ylisiurunen
Markus Ylisiurunen
15,034 Points

Hi!

In JavaScript when there is an active event listener on a specific event, it passes an event object to the handler function. That event object has a method called preventDefault() which prevents the default action from happening.

I hope this explanation gives you better understanding about event object.