I'm having a problem with my javascript. I want to create some kind of to-do list but I can't figure out how to delete an item.

When creating an item, it adds to the list with a delete button, but I don't know what to do for the item to delete itself when clicking on the button.

I have this on the addItem function

var item = document.createElement("li");
item.innerHTML = itemText + "<button class='delete'>Delete item</button>";
list.appendChild(item);

And this would be the function to delete the item, but I don't know what to put inside ...

function deleteItem() {

}

I'm having a problem with my javascript. I want to create some kind of to-do list but I can't figure out how to delete an item.

When creating an item, it adds to the list with a delete button, but I don't know what to do for the item to delete itself when clicking on the button.

I have this on the addItem function

var item = document.createElement("li");
item.innerHTML = itemText + "<button class='delete'>Delete item</button>";
list.appendChild(item);

And this would be the function to delete the item, but I don't know what to put inside ...

function deleteItem() {

}

• javascript
• element
• parent

• just pass a event parameter inside deleteItem(e) , now further see e.target element and perform removal of this element. I hope this will solve your issue. Try this. ie. Add item.innerHTML = itemText + "<button class='delete' onClick='deleteItem(e)'>Delete item</button>"; – maddy Commented May 10, 2015 at 10:36
• I added what you told me to add on the innerHTML, but what should I write exactly on the deleteItem(e) function? I'm not very good with javascript .. – Roy Morin Kat Commented May 10, 2015 at 10:39
• can you please share some part of working code in fiddle or something. ? – maddy Commented May 10, 2015 at 10:41

4 Answers 4

You have a couple of options:

1. You could attach it as a handler directly to the button, then use this.parentNode to access the parent element. To actually remove it, you'd probably want to go one step higher up the hierarchy (DOM4 defines a remove method on elements, but it may not be supported by older browsers). That would look like this:

   var item = document.createElement("li");
   var btn = document.createElement("button");
   btn.className = "delete";
   btn.innerHTML = "Delete item";
   btn.addEventListener("click", deleteItem, false);
   item.appendChild(btn);
   list.appendChild(item);
   
   // ...
   
   function deleteItem() {
       this.parentNode.parentNode.removeChild(this.parentNode);
   }
   

2. Instead of that, though, I'd use event delegation: Hook click on the list, and if the click passed through one of these delete buttons, handle it then: Your code for adding the list item and button would be unchanged. In one place, you'd have this:

   list.addEventListener("click", deleteItem, false);
   

   and deleteItem would look like this:

   function deleteItem(e) {
       var btn = e.target;
   
       // Since `button` elements can have elements inside them,
       // we start with the element that was the target of the
       // event and look to see if any the event passed through
       // a `button class="delete"` on its way to the list.
       while (btn && (btn.tagName != "BUTTON" || !/\bdelete\b/.test(btn.className))) {
           btn = btn.parentNode;
           if (btn === this) {
               btn = null;
            }
       }
       if (btn) {
           // Yes, it did -- remove the button's parent from the list
           // (`this` is the list, because that's what we hooked the
           // event on)
           this.removeChild(btn.parentNode);
       }
   }
   

Here's a live example of #2:

var list, item, n;

// Get the list, add a handler to it
list = document.getElementById("the-list");
list.addEventListener("click", deleteItem, false);

// Add items to it; you can do this at any time
for (n = 1; n <= 10; ++n) {
  item = document.createElement("li");
  item.innerHTML = "Item #" + n + "<button class='delete'>Delete item</button>";
  list.appendChild(item);
}

// Handle clicks that might e through the delete button
function deleteItem(e) {
  var btn = e.target;
  while (btn && (btn.tagName != "BUTTON" || !/\bdelete\b/.test(btn.className))) {
    btn = btn.parentNode;
    if (btn === this) {
      btn = null;
    }
  }
  if (btn) {
    this.removeChild(btn.parentNode);
  }
}

<ul id="the-list"></ul>

function registerClickHandler () {
    var x = document.querySelectorAll(".image");
    for(var i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
       x[i].querySelector(".remove").onclick = function(){
           this.parentNode.parentNode.removeChild(this.parentNode);
    };
}

You have to remove the parent element from that one's parent element using removeChild.
Assuming button refers to your button element:

button.parentNode.parentNode.removeChild(button.parentNode);

So to make your button clickable. you might wanna do something like

button.addEventListener('click', function(event)
{
    var button = event.target;
    button.parentNode.parentNode.removeChild(button.parentNode);
});

Edit:

Since Samuel Liew wanted me to add it so badly, here's how you obtain the button element from the context of item (after setting innerHTML):

var buttons = item.getElementsByTagName('button');
var button = buttons[buttons.length - 1]; // Just in case there is more than one button

Putting this all together:

var item = document.createElement("li");
item.innerHTML = itemText + "<button class='delete'>Delete item</button>";
var buttons = item.getElementsByTagName('button');
var button = buttons[buttons.length - 1];
button.addEventListener('click', function(event)
{
    var button = event.target;
    button.parentNode.parentNode.removeChild(button.parentNode);
});
list.appendChild(item);

You can also relate to this much simpler solution: For example with an image gallery;
//.................................................

<div class="image">
  <img src="" alt="First">
  <button class="remove">X</button>
</div>
<div class="image">
  <img src="" alt="Second">
  <button class="remove">X</button>
</div>
<div class="image">
  <img src="" alt="Third">
  <button class="remove">X</button>
</div>
<div class="image">
  <img src="" alt="Forth">
  <button class="remove">X</button>
</div>

var x = document.querySelectorAll(".image");

for(var i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
  x[i].querySelector(".remove").onclick = registerClickHandler;
}

function registerClickHandler () {
   this.parentNode.parentNode.removeChild(this.parentNode);

}

Hope it helps :)