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Getting notified in JavaScript when a Media Query changes

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Did you know JavaScript also support Media Queries?

29 Aug, 2020 · 2 min read

Media queries are fantastic and well used in modern web development. But how can one notify JavaScript if a particular media query is met?

There is a window listener called: matchMedia, which does precisely this!

This is what we will be making today:

JavaScript Media Query Changes

To use matchMedia, we call the following:

const mediaQuery = window.matchMedia('(max-width: 500px)');

To use it, we can add listeners to it:

mediaQuery.addListener(console.log);

If we size our screen with the console open, it will fire a console log for each media query match.

The return will have a MediaQueryListEvent, which contains a value called matches to say true or false.

Console logs are excellent, but it doesn’t do much for us, so we can also attach a function:

mediaQuery.addListener(alertMe);

function alertMe(e) {
  if (e.matches) {
    document.body.style.backgroundColor = 'green';
  } else {
    document.body.style.backgroundColor = 'red';
  }
}

If we resize and hit the media query, our screen will turn green or red depending on yes or no.

See this Codepen for a demo.

See the Pen Getting notified in JavaScript when a Media Query changes by Chris Bongers (@rebelchris) on CodePen.

More on MediaQueryList here MDN Web Docs

Browser Support

This function has outstanding support! For a novice function, one to use in projects.

MediaQueryList support

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