Trouble adding onclick handler to hyperlink tag inside listitem

Question

Trying to add an onclick handler to my tabs, and can't seem to get the DOM selection right. Can you guys help?

  <div id="tabstrip">
    <ul>
      <li id="a" class="selected"><a href="#">A</a></li>
      <li id="b"><a href="#">B</a></li>
      <li id="b"><a href="#">C</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>

function initTabStrip()
{
  var lis = document.getElementById('tabstrip').getElementsByTagName('li');
  for (var i=0;i<items.length;i++)
  {
    var as = items[i].getElementsByTagName('a');
    for (var j=0;j<as.length;j++)
    {
      as[j].onclick=function(){changeTab(items[i].id);return false}
    }
  }
}

Answer 1

Seems like your closure is wrong. Try

as[j].onclick = function(items, i)
{
    return function()
    {
        changeTab(items[i].id);
        return false;
    };
}(items, i);

If it works then the question is a dupe of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/359467/jquery-closures-loops-and-events#359505

Answer 2

I agree to RoBorg and suggest reading about JavaScript scopes. It will explain a lot.

Answer 3

First line of your JS, you create var lis but then you iterate on items. Is that really what you want ?

Answer 4

complete function, with changes suggested by RoBerg:

function initTabStrip()
{
  var tabstrip = document.getElementById('tabstrip');
  var items = tabstrip.getElementsByTagName('li');
  for (var i=0;i<items.length;i++)
  {
    var as = items[i].getElementsByTagName('a');
    for (var j=0;j<as.length;j++)
    {
      as[j].onclick = function(items, i)
      {
        return function()
        {
          changeTab(items[i].id);
          return false;
        };
      }(items, i);
    }
  }

}