How do I know when I've stopped scrolling?

How do I know when I've stopped scrolling using Javascript?


You can add an event handler for the scroll event and start a timeout. Something like:

var timer = null;
window.addEventListener('scroll', function() {
    if(timer !== null) {
        clearTimeout(timer);        
    }
    timer = setTimeout(function() {
          // do something
    }, 150);
}, false);

This will start a timeout and wait 150ms. If a new scroll event occurred in the meantime, the timer is aborted and a new one is created. If not, the function will be executed. You probably have to adjust the timing.

Also note that IE uses a different way to attach event listeners, this should give a good introduction: quirksmode - Advanced event registration models


There isn't a "Stopped Scrolling" event. If you want to do something after the user has finished scrolling, you can set a timer in the "OnScroll" event. If you get another "OnScroll" event fired then reset the timer. When the timer finally does fire, then you can assume the scrolling has stopped. I would think 500 milliseconds would be a good duration to start with.

Here's some sample code that works in IE and Chrome:

<html>

<body onscroll="bodyScroll();">

  <script language="javascript">
    var scrollTimer = -1;

    function bodyScroll() {
      document.body.style.backgroundColor = "white";

      if (scrollTimer != -1)
        clearTimeout(scrollTimer);

      scrollTimer = window.setTimeout("scrollFinished()", 500);
    }

    function scrollFinished() {
      document.body.style.backgroundColor = "red";
    }
  </script>

  <div style="height:2000px;">
    Scroll the page down. The page will turn red when the scrolling has finished.
  </div>

</body>

</html>

Here's a more modern, Promise-based solution I found on a repo called scroll-into-view-if-needed

Instead of using addEventListener on the scroll event it uses requestAnimationFrame to watch for frames with no movement and resolves when there have been 20 frames without movement.

function waitForScrollEnd () {
    let last_changed_frame = 0
    let last_x = window.scrollX
    let last_y = window.scrollY

    return new Promise( resolve => {
        function tick(frames) {
            // We requestAnimationFrame either for 500 frames or until 20 frames with
            // no change have been observed.
            if (frames >= 500 || frames - last_changed_frame > 20) {
                resolve()
            } else {
                if (window.scrollX != last_x || window.scrollY != last_y) {
                    last_changed_frame = frames
                    last_x = window.scrollX
                    last_y = window.scrollY
                }
                requestAnimationFrame(tick.bind(null, frames + 1))
            }
        }
        tick(0)
    })
}

With async/await and then

await waitForScrollEnd()

waitForScrollEnd().then(() => { /* Do things */ })