Dropdown is not working if I have a span inside the original button to trigger the dropdown

Question

I tried to make a dropdown like here: https://www.w3schools.com/howto/howto_js_dropdown.asp

But I in my code I have a span inside button.dropbtn and the click to show or hide the dropdown is not working, it is only work when I click near the span.

How can I fix this?

/* When the user clicks on the button,
toggle between hiding and showing the dropdown content */
function myFunction() {
  document.getElementById("myDropdown").classList.toggle("show");
}

// Close the dropdown menu if the user clicks outside of it
window.onclick = function(event) {
  if (!event.target.matches('.dropbtn')) {
    var dropdowns = document.getElementsByClassName("dropdown-content");
    var i;
    for (i = 0; i < dropdowns.length; i++) {
      var openDropdown = dropdowns[i];
      if (openDropdown.classList.contains('show')) {
        openDropdown.classList.remove('show');
      }
    }
  }
}

/* Dropdown Button */
.dropbtn {
  background-color: #3498DB;
  color: white;
  padding: 16px;
  font-size: 16px;
  border: none;
  cursor: pointer;
}

/* Dropdown button on hover & focus */
.dropbtn:hover, .dropbtn:focus {
  background-color: #2980B9;
}

/* The container <div> - needed to position the dropdown content */
.dropdown {
  position: relative;
  display: inline-block;
}

/* Dropdown Content (Hidden by Default) */
.dropdown-content {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  background-color: #f1f1f1;
  min-width: 160px;
  box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
  z-index: 1;
}

/* Links inside the dropdown */
.dropdown-content a {
  color: black;
  padding: 12px 16px;
  text-decoration: none;
  display: block;
}

/* Change color of dropdown links on hover */
.dropdown-content a:hover {background-color: #ddd}

/* Show the dropdown menu (use JS to add this class to the .dropdown-content container when the user clicks on the dropdown button) */
.show {display:block;}

<div class="dropdown">
  <button onclick="myFunction()" class="dropbtn">
    <span>Click me!</span>
  </button>
  <div id="myDropdown" class="dropdown-content">
    <a href="#">Link 1</a>
    <a href="#">Link 2</a>
    <a href="#">Link 3</a>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 1

Adding this to your CSS should fix the problem:

.dropbtn span {
  pointer-events: none;
}

Answer 2

That's because your click event is on the button, but the span is above the button. Clicking the span prevents your click from reaching the button.

You can add pointer-events:none to the span, so it becomes "transparent" to clicks, and the click reaches the button below :

/* When the user clicks on the button,
toggle between hiding and showing the dropdown content */
function myFunction() {
  document.getElementById("myDropdown").classList.toggle("show");
}

// Close the dropdown menu if the user clicks outside of it
window.onclick = function(event) {
  if (!event.target.matches('.dropbtn')) {
    var dropdowns = document.getElementsByClassName("dropdown-content");
    var i;
    for (i = 0; i < dropdowns.length; i++) {
      var openDropdown = dropdowns[i];
      if (openDropdown.classList.contains('show')) {
        openDropdown.classList.remove('show');
      }
    }
  }
}

.ignoreClick {
   pointer-events:none;
}

/* Dropdown Button */
.dropbtn {
  background-color: #3498DB;
  color: white;
  padding: 16px;
  font-size: 16px;
  border: none;
  cursor: pointer;
}

/* Dropdown button on hover & focus */
.dropbtn:hover, .dropbtn:focus {
  background-color: #2980B9;
}

/* The container <div> - needed to position the dropdown content */
.dropdown {
  position: relative;
  display: inline-block;
}

/* Dropdown Content (Hidden by Default) */
.dropdown-content {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  background-color: #f1f1f1;
  min-width: 160px;
  box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
  z-index: 1;
}

/* Links inside the dropdown */
.dropdown-content a {
  color: black;
  padding: 12px 16px;
  text-decoration: none;
  display: block;
}

/* Change color of dropdown links on hover */
.dropdown-content a:hover {background-color: #ddd}

/* Show the dropdown menu (use JS to add this class to the .dropdown-content container when the user clicks on the dropdown button) */
.show {display:block;}

<div class="dropdown">
  <button onclick="myFunction()" class="dropbtn">
    <span class="ignoreClick">Click me!</span>
  </button>
  <div id="myDropdown" class="dropdown-content">
    <a href="#">Link 1</a>
    <a href="#">Link 2</a>
    <a href="#">Link 3</a>
  </div>
</div>