JavaScript: Prevent Form Submission and Log Inputs

Last update on July 10 2025 12:50:07 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

JavaScript Event Handling: Exercise-12 with Solution

Prevent Default Behavior

Write a JavaScript program that prevents the default behavior of a form submission and logs the input values to the console.

Solution 1: Using addEventListener

HTML Code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
  <title>JS Bin</title>
</head>
<body>
  <form>
   <input type="text" name="username" placeholder="Enter your username" required />
   <input type="email" name="email" placeholder="Enter your email" required />
    <button type="submit">Submit</button>
  </form>
</body>
</html>

JavaScript Code:

// Select the form element
const form = document.querySelector('form');

// Add an event listener for the 'submit' event
form.addEventListener('submit', (event) => {
  event.preventDefault(); // Prevent the default form submission behavior

  // Get input values and log them
  const formData = new FormData(form); // Create a FormData object
  for (let [key, value] of formData.entries()) {
    console.log(`${key}: ${value}`); // Log key-value pairs
  }
});

Output:

Enter your username              Enter your email
Submit

Explanation:

1. Select the Form:

The querySelector method selects the <form> element in the DOM.

2. Add Event Listener:

A submit event listener is added to the form using addEventListener.

3. Prevent Default:

event.preventDefault() stops the browser from performing the default form submission behavior.

4. Extract Form Data:

FormData is used to retrieve all form input values as key-value pairs.

5. Log Form Data:

The values are logged to the console using a for...of loop.

Solution 2: Inline onsubmit Attribute

HTML Code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
  <title>JS Bin</title>
</head>
<body>
<form onsubmit="handleSubmit(event)">
  <input type="text" name="username" placeholder="Enter your username" required />
  <input type="email" name="email" placeholder="Enter your email" required />
  <button type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>
</body>
</html>

JavaScript Code:

function handleSubmit(event) {
  event.preventDefault(); // Prevent default behavior

  // Get the form reference from the event
  const form = event.target;

  // Extract and log the input values
  const inputs = form.querySelectorAll('input'); // Select all input elements
  inputs.forEach((input) => {
    console.log(`${input.name}: ${input.value}`); // Log the name and value of each input
  });
}

Output:

Enter your username              Enter your email
Submit

Explanation:

1. Inline Event Binding:

The onsubmit attribute in the <form> element binds the form submission to the handleSubmit function.

2. Prevent Default:

event.preventDefault() prevents the form from being submitted traditionally.

3. Access Form Inputs:

event.target provides the form element, and querySelectorAll selects all <input> elements.

4. Log Input Values:

A forEach loop iterates over the inputs, logging their name and value properties.

Live Demo:

See the Pen javascript-event-handling-exercise-12 by w3resource (@w3resource) on CodePen.

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a JavaScript program that prevents the default form submission and instead displays the submitted data on the page.
Write a JavaScript function that intercepts a link click, prevents its default navigation, and opens a custom modal.
Write a JavaScript program that stops the default behavior of a context menu and displays a custom menu instead.
Write a JavaScript function that prevents the default drag-and-drop behavior of files and processes the files manually.

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