Blank alert confirmation box from javascript function, when called from HTML form

Question

I'm currently programming a website system as part of my studies. I'm using PHP,HTML and Javascript throughout the project. I'm a novice programmer and i'm learning as i go along.

My current problem is that when a form submit button is pressed e.g. UPDATE or DELETE. I wanted a confirmation box asking the user 'Are you sure you want to submit?' using javascript. However whenever I click the button , an empty alert box appears even though there is text inside the JS function. Please look at the code below ! :

function confirm()
{
    return alert("Are you want to submit the form"?);
}
</script>

The html code is echoed in a php while loop

echo "<td>" . "<input type=submit name=update  value=update onclick='confirm();'" . "> </td>";

echo "<td>" . "<input type=submit name=delete  value=delete onclick='confirm();'" . "> </td>";

I am grateful for anyone taking their time to help !

Answer 1

Problem solved guys! appreciate all your help, was an error in with the ? in the javascript function. Funnily enough, it wasn't using confirm as my function name! won't use confirm next time for good practice.

return alert("Are you want to submit the form"?); <- ? outside of "" 

Corrected

return alert("Are you want to submit the form?");

Answer 2

confirm() is already a Javascript function. The question mark should also remain inside the double-quotes. Change your function name for clarity:

function confirmForm()
{
    return alert("Are you want to submit the form?");
}

echo "<td>" . "<input type=submit name=update  value=update onclick='confirmForm();'" . "> </td>";

Answer 3

if(confirm("question")){
// yes
} else {
//no
}

confirm() is a javascript reserved word