[javascript] How to stop "setInterval"

How do I stop and start setInterval?

Suppose I have a textarea. I want to stop setInterval on focus and restart setInterval on blur (with jQuery).

This is based on CMS's answer. The question asked for the timer to be restarted on the blur and stopped on the focus, so I moved it around a little:

$(function () {
  var timerId = 0;

  $('textarea').focus(function () {
    clearInterval(timerId);
  });

  $('textarea').blur(function () {
    timerId = setInterval(function () {
     //some code here 
    }, 1000);
  });
});

You have to store the timer id of the interval when you start it, you will use this value later to stop it, using the clearInterval function:

$(function () {
  var timerId = 0;

  $('textarea').focus(function () {
    timerId = setInterval(function () {
      // interval function body
    }, 1000);
  });

  $('textarea').blur(function () {
    clearInterval(timerId);
  });

});

Store the return of setInterval in a variable, and use it later to clear the interval.

var timer = null;
$("textarea").blur(function(){
    timer = window.setInterval(function(){ ... whatever ... }, 2000);
}).focus(function(){
    if(timer){
       window.clearInterval(timer);
       timer = null
    }
});

setInterval returns an id that you can use to cancel the interval with clearInterval()