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web api event

Element: mouseover event

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The mouseover event is fired at an Element when a pointing device (such as a mouse or trackpad) is used to move the cursor onto the element or one of its child elements.

If the target element has child elements, mouseout and mouseover events fire as the mouse moves over the boundaries of these elements too, not just the target element itself. Usually, mouseenter and mouseleave events’ behavior is more sensible, because they are not affected by moving into child elements.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.

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

onmouseover = (event) => { }

Event type

A MouseEvent. Inherits from UIEvent and Event.

Examples

The following example illustrates the difference between mouseover and mouseenter events.

HTML

<ul id="test">
  <li>item 1</li>
  <li>item 2</li>
  <li>item 3</li>
</ul>

JavaScript

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

// This handler will be executed only once when the cursor
// moves over the unordered list
test.addEventListener("mouseenter", (event) => {
  // highlight the mouseenter target
  event.target.style.color = "purple";

  // reset the color after a short delay
  setTimeout(() => {
    event.target.style.color = "";
  }, 500);
});

// This handler will be executed every time the cursor
// is moved over a different list item
test.addEventListener("mouseover", (event) => {
  // highlight the mouseover target
  event.target.style.color = "orange";

  // reset the color after a short delay
  setTimeout(() => {
    event.target.style.color = "";
  }, 500);
});

Result

Interactive exampleOpen the canonical MDN source to run this embedded demo.

Specifications

SpecificationsStandards references are available on the canonical MDN page.

Browser compatibility

Browser compatibilityCompatibility data is available on the canonical MDN page.

See also