Could Someone Help Me Parse This Statement

JavaScript
1

I would like to understand what each component in the Javascript statement below means. I searched and found bits and pieces but nothing I could interpret for the whole set. The context is that I think this is the first statement that I should use to process my form.

Here is the first tag of my form element in my HTML document:

<form action="death.php" method="get" class="deathsEntry">

where “death.php” is the filename that I expect to find data passed to the backend php code, and the class="deathsEntry" is a class variable name I gave to the form to identify it, and here is the javascript I need help with:

document.individual("deathsEntry").addEventListener("submit", function(event) {
      event.preventDefault(); // Prevent form submission

As I understand it document refers to the HTML DOM named document. .individual I could find no explanation for in any of my books or any of the tutorials I took or by searching. Based on the color VS Code gives it, I think it is a qualifier for documentbut I don’t know what it does. From the way it is positioned and colored in VS Code, I would infer that it has a specific effect qualifying some part of the DOM document object (in the way that getElementById causes a specific thing to happen). Does it restrict it to the current document somehow or to the individual form named deathsEntry in the HTML?

.addEventListener("submit", function(event) is a javascript function that is qualified to listen for a submit button click that will execute the event function, ```event.preventDefault();

I think the last function is there to keep the form from being submitted until the submit button is clicked, but I don’t understand it.

I’ve done tutorials and can now (mostly) recognize components of statements even if I don’t know how to suss out what they do. I found this code in a sort of monkey-see/monkey-do approach where I sought an example of form processing and tried to adapt it to my needs. Did I properly use the class="deathsEntry" in the document.individual . . . statement?

My interpretation of the javascript is:

Please comment on my explanation and correct all misunderstandings.

2
  • r u sure about this bit? it doesnt seem to be correct!! “document” doesnt have anything called “individual” in it, you can look this up more in “mdn docs”
  • other than that your interpretation and take on this seems to be on point, if im not mistaken
    happy coding :slight_smile:
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3

Thanks for the response.

I was hoping that someone would see that “individual” reference and explain it for me. I had searched and could find no reference to it. You confirmed for me that it is incorrect. I copied it from a tutorial. It’s possible that I misunderstood the context.

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