can someone explain this (easy)

[Hitman3266]

<a href="linkname" onclick="functionname(this.href); return false">

what is (this.href) for? what would happen if its removed?
and what is return false

thanks

[penders]

'this' is a special JavaScript keyword that returns a reference to the current object/element. In your case, 'this' refers to the anchor (<a> tag). 'this.href' refers to the value of the href attribute of the current element, which is 'linkname'. This is then passed to the functionname() function. This is the same as if you had hard coded it as...

functionname('linkname')

.

'return false' ensures that if JavaScript is enabled and the functionname() function is executed, then the normal link (as specified by the href attribute) will *not* be followed. However, if JS is disabled (the onclick event is not executed), then the link will still be followed (so the link still works if JS is off). If you were to remove 'return false' (same as having 'return true'), then the link will be followed, as well as the JS function being executed, which is not usually the desired effect... particulary if you are wanting to display the link in a popup window (a reason for calling a function() passing the value of the href attribute).

The brackets (...) are required as part of JS syntax. You must call a function like:

functionname()

What comes between the brackets is what you are passing to that function. If you removed 'this.href' then your function would not receive any input and would probably not work!

Hope that helps.

[brucec]

Another way put: this.href is just the href attribute of your <A> tag.