Firebug is reporting a "return not in function" error with no location (well, line 1 of nothing). How can I track down the source of this error?

return not in function
[Break on this error] return(0)
javascript:return... (line 1)

I'm running FireBug 1.05 on FF 2.0.0.20 on Ubuntu.

I found a solution that works (for this configuration):

  var link = document.createElement('a');
  link.href='/';
  if (childSummary.more) {
    link.onclick = capture(function(id) { follow(id); }, childSummary.id);
  } else {
    link.onclick = capture(function(id) { show(id); }, childSummary.id);
  }
  link.appendChild(document.createTextNode(name));
  div.appendChild(link);

  [...]

 function capture(fn, val) {
   return function() { fn(val); return false; };
 }

The code was in a loop in which the id was changing, necessitating the capture function.

Formerly the href was 'javascript: return 0' and the capture function wasn't returning false directly, instead using the result of the fn, and there was a path when it was returning the equivalent of true. The href was being evaluated causing the error.

Defining href as '#' or '' caused all the links to appear as already visited. Not defining href at all caused there to be no link highlighting. This seemed simplest.

Firebug is reporting a "return not in function" error with no location (well, line 1 of nothing). How can I track down the source of this error?

return not in function
[Break on this error] return(0)
javascript:return... (line 1)

I'm running FireBug 1.05 on FF 2.0.0.20 on Ubuntu.

I found a solution that works (for this configuration):

  var link = document.createElement('a');
  link.href='/';
  if (childSummary.more) {
    link.onclick = capture(function(id) { follow(id); }, childSummary.id);
  } else {
    link.onclick = capture(function(id) { show(id); }, childSummary.id);
  }
  link.appendChild(document.createTextNode(name));
  div.appendChild(link);

  [...]

 function capture(fn, val) {
   return function() { fn(val); return false; };
 }

The code was in a loop in which the id was changing, necessitating the capture function.

Formerly the href was 'javascript: return 0' and the capture function wasn't returning false directly, instead using the result of the fn, and there was a path when it was returning the equivalent of true. The href was being evaluated causing the error.

Defining href as '#' or '' caused all the links to appear as already visited. Not defining href at all caused there to be no link highlighting. This seemed simplest.

• javascript
• firebug

5 Answers 5

I think the "javascript:return ..." is telling. I believe you're trying to return a value in the href attribute of an anchor, as below:

<a href="javascript: return false">Test</a>

The reason Firebug isn't telling you the location is because it's not in any JavaScript, but is rather in a one-liner in the DOM.

Javascript returns an error because the return statement is not inside a function. A possible cause for this is incorrect function definition, such as:

myFunc() { some code; return; }

where the correct code definition is:

function myFunc() { some code; return; }

I'm going to hazard a guess that this means you have an extra closing brace, or a missing opening brace.

Is your codebase prohibitively large to do a spot check around each of your return functions? Do you have an IDE that highlights matching braces for you?

I got this when typing into the console window in firebug. I'd written a for loop to search for something in a list dont try and return a value in there - just assign it to a variable and you can see the object/value in the console.

Daniel Lew has the answer for dougfelt, but others who get this error should also look out for any return statement that doesn't reside in a function. For instance:

<script type="text/javascript">
    alert("I'm JavaScript!");
    return false;
</script>

return false; is outside of any function, and will cause this error.