Does back/forward in the browser change javascript variables?

Question

<script type="text/javascript>
var x = 0; //this occurs in the beginning of the page.

$("#button").onclick{
x = 1;
}

</script>

Let's say the variable "x" changes to 1. Then the user clicks a link. When the user clicks "back", will x be 0 or 1?

Randle

You could test it, and let us know..? =) – Baffle

hey original poster you may wanna choose the other answer as accepted :D – Kuo

Answer 1

It will be 0. The browser does not cache the state of Javascript variables between page loads.

Update

This is not the case in browsers such as Firefox. Please see Trey's answer.

Pippy

That's weird, I must have done something wrong. Was my code below wrong? I don't do much javascript, just trying to see why I get different behavior. – Butyraldehyde

But sometimes clicking a link then clicking back won't result in a page load, as when the target of the link is a local anchor. – Legg

how can you be so sure? It's completely up to the browser if it wants to hold a snapshot of the JavaScript state. And some browser actually do that when pressing back. I've seen it in Chrome, for example. – Lomeli

Answer 2

As detailed in another question, the real answer to this question is it depends on the browser.

In Firefox and Opera, the below page will preserve the state of 1 if Set x is clicked, the link is clicked, and then the back button is pressed. However, in Chrome and IE6 the page will be reloaded and x will have the value of 0.

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<input type="button" id="button" value="Set x">
<input type="button" id="check-x" value="Check x">
<a href="http://www.stackoverflow.com">Click Me</a>
<script>
var x = 0;

$("#button").click(function(){
    x = 1;
});

$("#check-x").click(function(){
   alert(x); 
});
</script>

Immigration

I think chrome preserves the state of the variable now as well – Copyboy