Can I find events bound on an element with jQuery?

In modern versions of jQuery, you would use the $._data method to find any events attached by jQuery to the element in question. Note, this is an internal-use only method:

// Bind up a couple of event handlers
$("#foo").on({
    click: function(){ alert("Hello") },
    mouseout: function(){ alert("World") }
});

// Lookup events for this particular Element
$._data( $("#foo")[0], "events" );

The result from $._data will be an object that contains both of the events we set (pictured below with the mouseout property expanded):

Console output for $._

Then in Chrome, you may right click the handler function and click "view function definition" to show you the exact spot where it is defined in your code.


General case:

  • Hit F12 to open Dev Tools
  • Click the Sources tab
  • On right-hand side, scroll down to Event Listener Breakpoints, and expand tree
  • Click on the events you want to listen for.
  • Interact with the target element, if they fire you will get a break point in the debugger

Similarly, you can:

  • right click on the target element -> select "Inspect element"
  • Scroll down on the right side of the dev frame, at the bottom is 'event listeners'.
  • Expand the tree to see what events are attached to the element. Not sure if this works for events that are handled through bubbling (I'm guessing not)

I'm adding this for posterity; There's an easier way that doesn't involve writing more JS. Using the amazing firebug addon for firefox,

  1. Right click on the element and select 'Inspect element with Firebug'
  2. In the sidebar panels (shown in the screenshot), navigate to the events tab using the tiny > arrow
  3. The events tab shows the events and corresponding functions for each event
  4. The text next to it shows the function location

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