How to delay the .keyup() handler until the user stops typing?

Question

I’ve got a search field. Right now it searches for every keyup. So if someone types “Windows”, it will make a search with AJAX for every keyup: “W”, “Wi”, “Win”, “Wind”, “Wi

Answer 1

Here is a suggestion I have written that takes care of multiple input in your form.

This function gets the Object of the input field, put in your code

function fieldKeyup(obj){
    //  what you want this to do

} // fieldKeyup

This is the actual delayCall function, takes care of multiple input fields

function delayCall(obj,ms,fn){
    return $(obj).each(function(){
    if ( typeof this.timer == 'undefined' ) {
       // Define an array to keep track of all fields needed delays
       // This is in order to make this a multiple delay handling     
          function
        this.timer = new Array();
    }
    var obj = this;
    if (this.timer[obj.id]){
        clearTimeout(this.timer[obj.id]);
        delete(this.timer[obj.id]);
    }

    this.timer[obj.id] = setTimeout(function(){
        fn(obj);}, ms);
    });
}; // delayCall

Usage:

$("#username").on("keyup",function(){
    delayCall($(this),500,fieldKeyup);
});