Dec
18
Links vs. JavaScript Event Handlers
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Anchor tags are frequently used to do something other than what they were meant for, such as executing some JavaScript code. I’m talking about cases such as these:
<a href="javascript:doSomething()">Click Here</a> // or... <a href="javascript:void(0)" onclick="doSomething()">Click Here</a>
Both of these are bad practice and should be avoided. The purpose of the anchor tag is to provide a link to a separate page so that the its interpreter (human or program, such as a search crawler) can use the value of its HREF attribute to reach another page (URL). If what you are putting into the HREF attribute is not a valid URL, you’re very likely using the wrong tag.
Subchild is a blog about web development. It's author is Aleksandar Kolundzija, himself a web developer
for 10++ years, presently a Hacker-in-Residence at betaworks. Prior to betaworks, Alex worked at Google, Meebo,
MLB Advanced Media (MLB.com), Razorfish, and elsewhere.