Window: error event

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

addEventListener("error", (event) => {});

onerror = (event, source, lineno, colno, error) => {};

The event object is a UIEvent instance if it was generated from a user interface element, or an Event instance otherwise.

Unlike other events, the error event is canceled by returning true from the handler instead of returning false. When canceled, the error won't appear in the console, but the current script will still stop executing.

The event handler's signature is asymmetric between addEventListener() and onerror. The event handler passed to addEventListener receives a single ErrorEvent object, while the onerror handler receives five arguments, matching the ErrorEvent object's properties:

event

A string containing a human-readable error message describing the problem. Same as ErrorEvent.message.

source

A string containing the URL of the script that generated the error.

lineno

An integer containing the line number of the script file on which the error occurred.

colno

An integer containing the column number of the script file on which the error occurred.

error

The error being thrown. Usually an Error object.

This special behavior only happens for the onerror event handler on window. The Element.onerror handler still receives a single ErrorEvent object.

HTML

<div class="controls">
  <button id="script-error" type="button">Generate script error</button>
  <img class="bad-img" />
</div>

<div class="event-log">
  <label for="eventLog">Event log:</label>
  <textarea
    readonly
    class="event-log-contents"
    rows="8"
    cols="30"
    id="eventLog"></textarea>
</div>

body {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-areas: "control log";
}

.controls {
  grid-area: control;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
}

.event-log {
  grid-area: log;
}

.event-log-contents {
  resize: none;
}

label,
button {
  display: block;
}

button {
  height: 2rem;
  margin: 0.5rem;
}

img {
  width: 0;
  height: 0;
}

JavaScript

const log = document.querySelector(".event-log-contents");

window.addEventListener("error", (event) => {
  log.textContent = `${log.textContent}${event.type}: ${event.message}\n`;
  console.log(event);
});

const scriptError = document.querySelector("#script-error");
scriptError.addEventListener("click", () => {
  const badCode = "const s;";
  eval(badCode);
});

Result

• This event on Element targets: error event