what is the best way to tell if an <a> element has a onclick event already attached

[matches]

I have a function that will add onclicks to <a> elements on my page but I don't want it to do it if the link all ready has a hard coded onclick attached already.

How can I tell if a link has an onclick already hard coded in?

Thanks for any help

[paul_wilkins]

There are several different ways of assigning onclick handlers, so there are just as many ways to find out if there's anything assigned.

Here is some code to test things with.

<a id="anchor" href="javascript:alert()" onclick="alert(); return false;">

var anchor = document.getElementById('anchor');
// Attach other events
anchor.onclick = alert();
if (anchor.addEventListener) {
    anchor.addEventListener('click', alert, false);
} else if (document.attachEvent) {
    anchor.attachEvent('onclick', alert);
}
 
// Find events
if (anchor.match(/^javascript:/i)) {
    // The javascript pseudo-protocol has been used
}
if (anchor.getAttribute('onclick') > '') {
    // The onclick attribute has been used
}
if (anchor.onclick > '') {
    // The onclick event registration has been used
}

I don't think it's possible to easily determine if addEventListener and attachEvent have been used.

[M-M-J]

I don't think it's possible to easily determine if addEventListener and attachEvent have been used.

Yeah, seems to be so.

http://www.quirksmode.org/js/events_advanced.html#link5