Knowledge Base

PRB: HREF="#" with Event Code Behaves Differently

Article ID: 190244

Article Last Modified on 8/8/2007

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 128-Bit Edition
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 2

This article was previously published under Q190244

SYMPTOMS

The following HTML statement, when clicked, will navigate to a new URL in Internet Explorer 3.0, but fails to do so in Internet Explorer 4.0:

<A HREF="#" onclick="window.location.href='http://www.microsoft.com';"> 
    problem repro </A>

CAUSE

Internet Explorer 4.0 waits until all events from the <A> tag are finished before processing the HREF attribute, so window.location.href will be overwritten by HREF="#".

RESOLUTION

Here are three ways to make this tag work as expected in Internet Explorer 4.0. See the "More Information" section for a complete code listing.

Add this statement to the code:
```
window.event.returnValue = false;
						
```
This causes the onclick event to fire and not try to navigate to the HREF specified by the link.
Replace the HREF value with JavaScript:[code].
Eliminate HREF="#" and make it look like an anchor with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) by adding this style attribute to the anchor:
```
style="cursor:hand; text-decoration:underline; color:blue; font-family:times new roman"
						
```

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

The following HTML code demonstrates the problem and the resolutions.

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> title </TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<A HREF="#" onclick="window.location.href='http://www.microsoft.com';">
 problem repro </A>
<br>
<A HREF="#" onclick="window.location.href='http://www.microsoft.com';
   window.event.returnValue=false;">
   solution 1: add window.event.returnValue=false statement</A>
<br>
<A HREF="JavaScript:window.location.href='http://www.microsoft.com';">
   solution 2: replace HREF value with JavaScript:[code] </A>
<br>
<A onclick="window.location.href='http://www.microsoft.com';"
   onmouseover="window.status='http://www.microsoft.com';"
   onmouseout="window.status='';"
   style="cursor:hand; text-decoration:underline; color:blue;
   font-family:times new roman">
   solution 3: remove HREF attribute and use CSS </A>
</BODY>
</HTML>

REFERENCES

For more information about developing Web-based solutions for Microsoft Internet Explorer, visit the following Microsoft Web sites:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie/

http://support.microsoft.com/iep

For more information about Microsoft Scripting technologies, see the following Web site:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms950396.aspx

Keywords: kbbug kbhtml kbprb kbscript KB190244