CODEWITHSUNDEEP
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Joda Maki
Joda Maki

Reputation: 5869

Will this cause a browser memory leak?

I create a couple divs with an onclick event on them as children of 'parentDiv'. In the future, I set parentDiv.innerHTML = 'xyz' where xyz is more divs with onclick events, which replace the old ones.

My question: will any browsers leak memory because I did not remove the onclick events of the the old div's before removing them from the dom?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 275

Answers (4)

Vlad A. Ionescu
Vlad A. Ionescu

Reputation: 2788

Usually no.

However, if your onclick handler happens to be closure which references the HTML element it is attached to, then it could leak in some browsers.

Have a look at this guide I wrote for more details on JavaScript memory leaks and how to find and fix them: http://www.vladalexandruionescu.com/2012/08/javascript-memory-leaks.html. That should clear things up for you.

Upvotes: 0

Brad
Brad

Reputation: 163593

No, this is up to the browser to manage. As objects are removed, the browser will (or at least should) free up associated memory. I wouldn't bank on it though.

In any case, unless you are doing this thousands of times, I wouldn't expect it to be an issue.

Upvotes: 0

Josh K
Josh K

Reputation: 28893

If you remove them from the DOM then any event handlers should be removed from them as well and not cause a leak.

Douglas Crockford has some excellent writing on JavaScript Memory Leaks. Well worth the read.

Upvotes: 0

Lance
Lance

Reputation: 1897

I would suggest reading up on memory leaks as explained by Douglas Crockford. The article gives you detailed examples of memory leaks and even a nice purge function allowing you to overcome the issues associated with them. Enjoy!

Upvotes: 1

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