How do I wait until the user has finished writing down in a text input to call a function?

Question

I'm designing a web site and I would like to be able to call a function 1 second after the last user input. I tried using onKeyUp, but it waited 1 second after the first keystroke.

Does anyone know how would this be possible?

Answer 1

Another similar approach, without globals:

var typewatch = function(){     var timer = 0;     return function(callback, ms){         clearTimeout (timer);         timer = setTimeout(callback, ms);     }   }();     

...

<input type="text" onKeyUp="typewatch(function(){alert('Time elapsed!');}, 1000 );" /> 

You can this snippet here.

Answer 2

You can use a keyDown (or keyUp) event that sets a function to run in 1 second and if the user types another key within that second, you can clear the timeout and set a new one.

E.g.

var t;      function keyDown() {   if ( t )   {     clearTimeout( t );     t = setTimeout( myCallback, 1000 );   }   else   {     t = setTimeout( myCallback, 1000 );   } }  function myCallback() {    alert("It's been 1 second since you typed something"); }