HTMLInputElement: search event

Non-standard: This feature is not standardized. We do not recommend using non-standard features in production, as they have limited browser support, and may change or be removed. However, they can be a suitable alternative in specific cases where no standard option exists.

The search event is fired when a search is initiated using an element of type="search".

There are several ways a search can be initiated, such as by pressing Enter while the is focused, or, if the incremental attribute is present, after a UA-defined timeout elapses since the most recent keystroke (with new keystrokes resetting the timeout so the firing of the event is debounced).

Current UA implementations of have an additional control to clear the field. Using this control also fires the search event. In that case the value of the element will be the empty string.

This event is not cancelable.

Syntax

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

js
addEventListener("search", (event) => { })

onsearch = (event) => { }

Event type

A generic Event.

Examples

js
// addEventListener version
const input = document.querySelector('input[type="search"]');

input.addEventListener("search", () => {
  console.log(`The term searched for was ${input.value}`);
});
js
// onsearch version
const input = document.querySelector('input[type="search"]');

input.onsearch = () => {
  console.log(`The term searched for was ${input.value}`);
};

Specifications

This event is not part of any specification.

Browser compatibility