jQuery create element fires onclick event

Question

I create a anchor using jQuery and the onclick event seems be triggered when the element is created. I've used this method of creating elements a few times with this project without a problem, have I got the wrong end of the stick?

jQuery('<a/>', {
    href: '#',
    name: 'link_html_edit',
    id: 'link_html_edit',
    html: 'input HTML text',
    onclick: alert('test')
}).appendTo(spanDefaultValue);

Thanks

Answer 1

Looking at the jQuery documentation on this page you should be doing this:

$("<a/>", {
   href: '#',
    name: 'link_html_edit',
    id: 'link_html_edit',
    html: 'input HTML text',
  click: function(){
     alert('test');
  }
}).appendTo("body");

Answer 2

You're calling alert('test'); and assigning it's return value to onclick. Use this instead:

onclick: function(){ alert('test'); }

Since I'm sure alert('test') is just an example I should also point out that if you have the same problem with some function you likely can just change your code from:

onclick: somefunction()

To:

onclick: somefunction

You only need to wrap it in an anonymous function the way I did with alert('test'); if you're passing arguments to the function other than the event object that is normally passed to an event handler.