HTMLElement: change event

The change event is fired for <input>, <select>, and <textarea> elements when the user modifies the element's value. Unlike the input event, the change event is not necessarily fired for each alteration to an element's value.

Depending on the kind of element being changed and the way the user interacts with the element, the change event fires at a different moment:

The HTML specification lists the <input> types that should fire the change event.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.

js
addEventListener("change", (event) => {});

onchange = (event) => {};

Event type

A generic Event.

Examples

<select> element

HTML

html
<label>
  Choose an ice cream flavor:
  <select class="ice-cream" name="ice-cream">
    <option value="">Select One …</option>
    <option value="chocolate">Chocolate</option>
    <option value="sardine">Sardine</option>
    <option value="vanilla">Vanilla</option>
  </select>
</label>

<div class="result"></div>

JavaScript

js
const selectElement = document.querySelector(".ice-cream");
const result = document.querySelector(".result");

selectElement.addEventListener("change", (event) => {
  result.textContent = `You like ${event.target.value}`;
});

Result

Text input element

For some elements, including <input type="text">, the change event doesn't fire until the control loses focus. Try entering something into the field below, and then click somewhere else to trigger the event.

HTML

html
<input placeholder="Enter some text" name="name" />
<p id="log"></p>

JavaScript

js
const input = document.querySelector("input");
const log = document.getElementById("log");

input.addEventListener("change", updateValue);

function updateValue(e) {
  log.textContent = e.target.value;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard
# event-change
HTML Standard
# handler-onchange

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

Different browsers do not always agree whether a change event should be fired for certain types of interaction. For example, keyboard navigation in <select> elements used to never fire a change event in Gecko until the user hit Enter or switched the focus away from the <select> (see Firefox bug 126379). Since Firefox 63 (Quantum), this behavior is consistent between all major browsers, however.