Create a Button in JavaScript

As a web developer, you should probably create buttons and add them to your HTML page programmatically.

A typical workflow is to validate some data in your JavaScript code before displaying a button in HTML to your users.

Before starting, let me show you what you will achieve!

<button type="button">Can you click me?</button>

HTML button in JS

When you click on the button, your JavaScript code will trigger an alert.

Button in JavaScript with on click Alert

Let’s dive into that tutorial!

1. Create a button using document `createElement`

To create a button in JavaScript, you must use the createElement function available by default in the Document interface of your web page.

Then, you will configure the button with a “Can you click me?” text.

// Create a button element
const button = document.createElement('button')

// Set the button text to 'Can you click me?'
button.innerText = 'Can you click me?'

As a side note, you can add a lot of properties to a button when creating it. This tutorial only sets the innerText because we don’t need the other properties.

2. Add an event listener on your button

The next step is to create an event listener on your button. It will allow you to detect when a user clicks on it.

Whenever the “click” event is detected, the arrow function (second parameter) is launched.

// Attach the "click" event to your button
button.addEventListener('click', () => {
  // When there is a "click"
  // it shows an alert in the browser
  alert('Oh, you clicked me!')
})

3. Add your JS button to your HTML

The last step is to add your button to the HTML body.

After that, you will have the same result as the beginning example!

// Add the button to your HTML <body> tag
document.body.appendChild(button)

Full code to create a button in JS 👇

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Create a Button in JavaScript</title>
  </head>

  <body>
    <!-- Empty <body> HTML (the JavaScript code in <script> will generate a button here)-->

    <script>
      // Create a button element
      const button = document.createElement('button')

      // Set the button text to 'Can you click me?'
      button.innerText = 'Can you click me?'

      button.id = 'mainButton'

      // Attach the "click" event to your button
      button.addEventListener('click', () => {
        // When there is a "click"
        // it shows an alert in the browser
        alert('Oh, you clicked me!')
      })

      document.body.appendChild(button)
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

What’s next?

Congrats! 🎉 Now you know how to programmatically create buttons using JavaScript. You can go a bit further by learning how to enable and disable a button in JavaScript.

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1. Create a button using document createElement

2. Add an event listener on your button

3. Add your JS button to your HTML

Full code to create a button in JS 👇

1. Create a button using document `createElement`