[javascript] Detect if user is scrolling

How can I detect in javascript if the user is scrolling?

This question is related to javascript

The answer is


Use an interval to check

You can setup an interval to keep checking if the user has scrolled then do something accordingly.

Borrowing from the great John Resig in his article.

Example:

    let didScroll = false;

    window.onscroll = () => didScroll = true;

    setInterval(() => {
        if ( didScroll ) {
            didScroll = false;
            console.log('Someone scrolled me!')
        }
    }, 250);

See live example


window.addEventListener("scroll",function(){
    window.lastScrollTime = new Date().getTime()
});
function is_scrolling() {
    return window.lastScrollTime && new Date().getTime() < window.lastScrollTime + 500
}

Change the 500 to the number of milliseconds after the last scroll event at which you consider the user to be "no longer scrolling".

(addEventListener is better than onScroll because the former can coexist nicely with any other code that uses onScroll.)


You just said javascript in your tags, so @Wampie Driessen post could helps you.

I want also to contribute, so you can use the following when using jQuery if you need it.

 //Firefox
 $('#elem').bind('DOMMouseScroll', function(e){
     if(e.detail > 0) {
         //scroll down
         console.log('Down');
     }else {
         //scroll up
         console.log('Up');
     }

     //prevent page fom scrolling
     return false;
 });

 //IE, Opera, Safari
 $('#elem').bind('mousewheel', function(e){
     if(e.wheelDelta< 0) {
         //scroll down
         console.log('Down');
     }else {
         //scroll up
         console.log('Up');
     }

     //prevent page fom scrolling
     return false;
 });

Another example:

$(function(){
    var _top = $(window).scrollTop();
    var _direction;
    $(window).scroll(function(){
        var _cur_top = $(window).scrollTop();
        if(_top < _cur_top)
        {
            _direction = 'down';
        }
        else
        {
            _direction = 'up';
        }
        _top = _cur_top;
        console.log(_direction);
    });
});?

If you want detect when user scroll over certain div, you can do something like this:

window.onscroll = function() {
    var distanceScrolled = document.documentElement.scrollTop;
    console.log('Scrolled: ' + distanceScrolled);
}

For example, if your div appear after scroll until the position 112:

window.onscroll = function() {
    var distanceScrolled = document.documentElement.scrollTop;
    if (distanceScrolled > 112) {
      do something...
    }
}

But as you can see you don't need a div, just the offset distance you want something to happen.