clearTimeout on Mouseover Event not clearing setTimeout from Mouseout Event

Question

I have some code that adds mouseover events and mouseout events to all 'a' tags on a page. I'd like it so that the mouseout starts a 5 second timer after which time it calls a function. However, if a new mouseover event fires, it should cancel any existing timers. The code I'm using follows. The setTimeout() is working fine, but it seems like the clearTimeout() isn't referencing the right timeoutID, even though I declared it globally. Any suggestions?

var timeoutID;

function addMouseoverEvent() {
    $('a').each(function(index) {
        $(this).mouseover(function() {
            clearTimeout(timeoutID);
            // do stuff
        })
    }); 
}

function addMouseoutEvent() {
    $('a').each(function(index) {
        $(this).mouseout(function() {
            timeoutID = setTimeout(function() {
                // do stuff
            }, 5000);
        })
    });
}

$(window).load(function() {
    addMouseoverEvent();
    addMouseoutEvent();
});

I should clarify that there should really only ever be one active timer. That's why I wanted it to be global. If a mouseover event occurs no timers should remain. And if a mouseout event occurs only one timer should be active - the one triggered by the last mouseout event.

Answer 1

If your timeoutId is globall then its going to get overwritten on each iteration of $('a').each(). If youre using 1.4 you can use the delay method most likely. or you could store the timeoutId on the element with $(this).data('timeoutId', setTimeout(youFunction)`.

Answer 2

I know it's already been answered, but I found that simply removing the .each() call makes this appear to work as desired. Try the little hover game on this Fiddle.

var timeoutID;

function addMouseoverEvent() {
  $('a').mouseover(function() { 
     clearTimeout(timeoutID);
  }); 
}

function addMouseoutEvent() {
  $('a').mouseout(function() {
     timeoutID = setTimeout(function() { 
       // do stuff
     }, 5000);
  });
}

$(document).ready( function(){
  addMouseoverEvent();
  addMouseoutEvent();
});

It's very possible I'm missing something -- but the hover game seems to work fine.