onclick vs addEventListener

What’s the difference between these two lines of code?

element.onclick = function() { /* do stuff */ }
element.addEventListener('click', function(){ /* do stuff */ }, false);

They apparently do the same thing: listen for the click event and execute a callback function. Nevertheless, they’re not equivalent. If you ever need to choose between the two, this could help you to figure out which one is the best for you.

The main difference is that onclick is just a property, and like all object properties, if you write on more than once, it will be overwritten. With addEventListener() instead, we can simply bind an event handler to the element, and we can call it each time we need it without being worried of any overwritten properties.

In first place I was tempted to keep using onclick, because it’s shorter and looks simpler… and in fact it is. But I don’t recommend using it anymore. It’s just like using inline JavaScript. Using something like <button onclick="doSomething()">that’s inline JavaScript – is highly discouraged nowadays (inline CSS is discouraged too, but that’s another topic).

However, the addEventListener() function, despite it’s the standard, just doesn’t work in old browsers (Internet Explorer below version 9), and this is another big difference. If you need to support these ancient browsers, you should follow the onclick way. But you could also use jQuery (or one of its alternatives): it basically simplifies your work and reduces the differences between browsers, therefore can save you a lot of time.