Skip to content

How to wait for the DOM ready event in plain JavaScript

How to run JavaScript as soon as we can, but not sooner

You can do so by adding an event listener to the document object for the DOMContentLoaded event:

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => {
  //the event occurred
})

I usually don’t use arrow functions inside for the event callback, because we cannot access this.

In this case we don’t need so, because this is always document. In any other event listener I would just use a regular function:

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function (event) {
  //the event occurred
})

for example if I’m adding the event listener inside a loop and I don’t really know what this will be when the event is triggered.


→ Here's my latest YouTube video

→ I wrote 17 books to help you become a better developer, download them all at $0 cost by joining my newsletter

JOIN MY CODING BOOTCAMP, an amazing cohort course that will be a huge step up in your coding career - covering React, Next.js - next edition February 2025

Bootcamp 2025

Join the waiting list