hashchange

The hashchange event is fired when the fragment identifier of the URL has changed (the part of the URL that follows the # symbol, including the # symbol).

Bubbles Yes
Cancelable No
Target objects Window
Interface HashChangeEvent
Default action None

Properties

Property Type Description
target Read only EventTarget The browsing context (<code>window</code>).
type Read only DOMString The type of event.
bubbles Read only Boolean Whether the event normally bubbles or not
cancelable Read only Boolean Whether the event is cancellable or not?
oldURL Read only string The previous URL from which the window was navigated.
newURL Read only string

There are several fallback scripts listed on this page. Basically those scripts check the location.hash at a regular interval. Here is a version that allows only one handler to be bound to the window.onhashchange property:

(function(window) {

  // exit if the browser implements that event
  if ( "onhashchange" in window.document.body ) { return; }

  var location = window.location,
    oldURL = location.href,
    oldHash = location.hash;

  // check the location hash on a 100ms interval
  setInterval(function() {
    var newURL = location.href,
      newHash = location.hash;

    // if the hash has changed and a handler has been bound...
    if ( newHash != oldHash && typeof window.onhashchange === "function" ) {
      // execute the handler
      window.onhashchange({
        type: "hashchange",
        oldURL: oldURL,
        newURL: newURL
      });

      oldURL = newURL;
      oldHash = newHash;
    }
  }, 100);

})(window);

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard
The definition of 'hashchange' in that specification.
Living Standard Initial definition

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support 5.0 3.6 (1.9.2)[1] 8.0[2] 10.6 5.0
Feature Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support 2.2 1.0 (1.9.2) 9.0 11.0 5.0

[1] Support for the oldURL/newURL attributes added in Firefox 6.

[2] oldURL/newURL attributes are not supported.

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

Tags: 
 Contributors to this page: Sebastianz, Tigt, molsson, bjb568, teoli, leon_gilyadov, Sheppy, ethertank, louisremi
 Last updated by: Sebastianz,