Which “href” value should I use for JavaScript links, “#” or “javascript:void(0)”?

Question

The following are two methods of building a link that has the sole purpose of running JavaScript code. Which is better, in terms of functionality, page load speed, validation purposes, etc.?

function myJsFunc() {
    alert("myJsFunc");
}

<a href="#" onclick="myJsFunc();">Run JavaScript Code</a>

Answer 1

I use javascript:void(0).

Three reasons. Encouraging the use of # amongst a team of developers inevitably leads to some using the return value of the function called like this:

function doSomething() {
    //Some code
    return false;
}

But then they forget to use return doSomething() in the onclick and just use doSomething().

A second reason for avoiding # is that the final return false; will not execute if the called function throws an error. Hence the developers have to also remember to handle any error appropriately in the called function.

A third reason is that there are cases where the onclick event property is assigned dynamically. I prefer to be able to call a function or assign it dynamically without having to code the function specifically for one method of attachment or another. Hence my onclick (or on anything) in HTML markup look like this:

onclick="someFunc.call(this)"

OR

onclick="someFunc.apply(this, arguments)"

Using javascript:void(0) avoids all of the above headaches, and I haven't found any examples of a downside.

So if you're a lone developer then you can clearly make your own choice, but if you work as a team you have to either state:

Use href="#", make sure onclick always contains return false; at the end, that any called function does not throw an error and if you attach a function dynamically to the onclick property make sure that as well as not throwing an error it returns false.

OR

Use href="javascript:void(0)"

The second is clearly much easier to communicate.

Answer 2

Doing <a href="#" onclick="myJsFunc();">Link</a> or <a href="javascript:void(0)" onclick="myJsFunc();">Link</a> or whatever else that contains an onclick attribute - was okay back five years ago, though now it can be a bad practice. Here's why:

1. It promotes the practice of obtrusive JavaScript - which has turned out to be difficult to maintain and difficult to scale. More on this in Unobtrusive JavaScript.

2. You're spending your time writing incredibly overly verbose code - which has very little (if any) benefit to your codebase.

3. There are now better, easier, and more maintainable and scalable ways of accomplishing the desired result.

The unobtrusive JavaScript way

Just don't have a href attribute at all! Any good CSS reset would take care of the missing default cursor style, so that is a non-issue. Then attach your JavaScript functionality using graceful and unobtrusive best practices - which are more maintainable as your JavaScript logic stays in JavaScript, instead of in your markup - which is essential when you start developing large scale JavaScript applications which require your logic to be split up into blackboxed components and templates. More on this in Large-scale JavaScript Application Architecture

Simple code example

// Cancel click event
$('.cancel-action').click(function(){
    alert('Cancel action occurs!');
});

// Hover shim for Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7.
$(document.body).on('hover','a',function(){
    $(this).toggleClass('hover');
});

a { cursor: pointer; color: blue; }
a:hover,a.hover { text-decoration: underline; }

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<a class="cancel-action">Cancel this action</a>