Element: focus event

The focus event fires when an element has received focus. The event does not bubble, but the related focusin event that follows does bubble.

The opposite of focus is the blur event, which fires when the element has lost focus.

The focus event is not cancelable.

Syntax

Use the event name in addEventListener():

addEventListener("focus", (event) => { })

Alternatively, assign to the event handler property of the interface:

onfocus = (event) => { }

Event type

A FocusEvent. Inherits from UIEvent and Event.

Examples

Simple example

HTML

<form id="form">
  <label>
    Some text:
    <input type="text" placeholder="text input" />
  </label>
  <label>
    Password:
    <input type="password" placeholder="password" />
  </label>
</form>

JavaScript

const password = document.querySelector('input[type="password"]');

password.addEventListener("focus", (event) => {
  event.target.style.background = "pink";
});

password.addEventListener("blur", (event) => {
  event.target.style.background = "";
});

Result

Event delegation

There are two ways of implementing event delegation for this event: by using the focusin event, or by setting the useCapture parameter of addEventListener() to true.

HTML

<form id="form">
  <label>
    Some text:
    <input type="text" placeholder="text input" />
  </label>
  <label>
    Password:
    <input type="password" placeholder="password" />
  </label>
</form>

JavaScript

const form = document.getElementById("form");

form.addEventListener(
  "focus",
  (event) => {
    event.target.style.background = "pink";
  },
  true,
);

form.addEventListener(
  "blur",
  (event) => {
    event.target.style.background = "";
  },
  true,
);

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• The HTMLElement.focus() method
• Related events: blur, focusin, focusout
• This event on Window targets: focus event
• Focusing: focus/blur