Window: confirm() method

window.confirm() instructs the browser to display a dialog with an optional message, and to wait until the user either confirms or cancels the dialog.

Under some conditions — for example, when the user switches tabs — the browser may not actually display a dialog, or may not wait for the user to confirm or cancel the dialog.

Syntax

js
confirm()
confirm(message)

Parameters

message Optional

A string you want to display in the confirmation dialog.

Return value

A boolean indicating whether OK (true) or Cancel (false) was selected. If a browser is ignoring in-page dialogs, then the returned value is always false.

Examples

js
if (window.confirm("Do you really want to leave?")) {
  window.open("exit.html", "Thanks for Visiting!");
}

Produces:

Firefox confirm

Notes

Dialog boxes are modal windows — they prevent the user from accessing the rest of the program's interface until the dialog box is closed. For this reason, you should not overuse any function that creates a dialog box (or modal window). Regardless, there are good reasons to avoid using dialog boxes for confirmation.

Alternatively <dialog> element can be used for confirmations.

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard
# dom-confirm-dev

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also