How does `:` in `on:click` work, in Svelte?

Question

I am experimenting with Svelte and following the official tutorial. At https://svelte.dev/tutorial/reactive-assignments, I am instructed to use this line of code:

<button on:click={handleClick}>

What is the purpose of the colon? Why isn't it simply <button onclick=...?

I found the Svelte API documentation on element directives, which provides usage examples within Svelte, but I still don't understand how this is valid JS syntax, or how it is transformed to such. I don't understand how the colon works (as separate from understanding its usage).

I can understand that this was a way to implement a single directive for all DOM event attributes, but its actual functioning is not that transparent to me.

Froggy

Vue uses @click, Angular uses (click) etc. As mentioned below it's not valid, it's run through some compilation. – Fimble

Answer 1

Others have explained the point about it being compiled into JavaScript, so I'll address this part:

Why isn't it simply <button onclick=...?

The onclick attribute is an existing HTML attribute (that you shouldn't use). The semantics are very different — the string value is evaluated as JavaScript when the click happens. It's a bad practice because any functions you call must live in the global scope.

on:click is a Sveltism that links the button's click event to a locally defined function. The : is a generic piece of syntax that says 'this is a directive rather than an attribute' — where 'directive' can mean an event handler (on:...), a binding (bind:...), a transition (in:.../out:.../transition:...) and so on.

Tannertannery

pardon me if this is a stupid question, svelte is a compiler right? so does that mean it reads this file with the on:click and generates some JS code from it which is what the browsers eventually run? how does it generate platform specific JS code? – Pellucid

Visit the REPL, click 'JS Output'. All will be revealed – Tannertannery

Answer 2

The first thing to understand is that the code in Svelte components is actually not the resulting JavaScript that is sent to the browser, so about:

I still don't understand how this is valid JS syntax

It is not. It is "compiled" into valid JavaScript by SvelteJS's compiler.

I have not roamed through the source code, but I presume the colon in this case, is used to denote the event handler binding directive (on) from the event itself (click).

---

For an actual demonstration of the compilation: you can visit the REPL and select the "Js output" tab to see the compiled JavaScript code.

Unwieldy

Answer 3

The svelte <button on:click ... /> becomes after the compilation step a normal event listener for the event "click" on that button. getEventListeners(elem) will reveal that. Thats why multiple handlers are possible, for example <button on:click on:doWhatever...> So, equivalent to add elem.addEventListener() in plain js.

Cathead

Answer 4

As of Svelte 5 the prop will be called onclick:

https://svelte-5-preview.vercel.app/docs/event-handlers

Stilted