Event.defaultPrevented

The defaultPrevented read-only property of the Event interface returns a Boolean indicating whether or not the call to Event.preventDefault() canceled the event.

Note: You should use this instead of the non-standard, deprecated getPreventDefault() method (see bug 691151).

Syntax

var defaultWasPrevented = event.defaultPrevented;

Value

A Boolean, where true indicates that the default user agent action was prevented, and false indicates that it was not.

Example

This example logs attempts to visit links from two <a> elements. JavaScript is used to prevent the second link from working.

HTML

<p><a id="link1" href="#link1">Visit link 1</a></p>
<p><a id="link2" href="#link2">Try to visit link 2</a> (you can't)</p>
<p id="log"></p>

JavaScript

function stopLink(event) {
  event.preventDefault();
}

function logClick(event) {
  const log = document.getElementById('log');

  if (event.target.tagName === 'A') {
    if (event.defaultPrevented) {
      log.innerText = 'Sorry, but you cannot visit this link!\n' + log.innerText;
    }
    else {
      log.innerText = 'Visiting link...\n' + log.innerText;
    }
  }
}

const a = document.getElementById('link2');
a.addEventListener('click', stopLink);
document.addEventListener('click', logClick);

Result

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
DOM
The definition of 'Event.defaultPrevented()' in that specification.
Living Standard

Browser compatibility

DesktopMobile
ChromeEdgeFirefoxInternet ExplorerOperaSafariAndroid webviewChrome for AndroidFirefox for AndroidOpera for AndroidSafari on iOSSamsung Internet
defaultPreventedChrome Full support 18Edge Full support 12Firefox Full support 6IE Full support 9Opera Full support 11Safari Full support 5WebView Android Full support YesChrome Android Full support 18Firefox Android Full support 6Opera Android Full support 11Safari iOS Full support 5Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support
Full support