Difference between mouseover, mouseenter and mousemove events in JavaScript

Last Updated : 19 Feb, 2020

Events in JavaScript provide a dynamic interface to the webpage. There are wide variety of events such as user clicking, moving the mouse over an element, etc. Events that occur when the mouse interacts with the HTML document falls under the category of MouseEvent property.

mouseover: The onmouseover event triggers when the mouse pointer enters an element or any one of its child elements.
```
<element onmouseover="myfunction()">
```
mouseenter: The onmouseenter event is triggered only when the mouse pointer hits the element.
```
<element onmouseenter="myfunction()">
```
mousemove: The onmousemove event is triggered each time the mouse pointer is moved when it is over an element.
```
<element onmousemove="myfunction()">
```

Note: The mousemove event occurs each time the user moves the mouse by one pixel.

Example: The following example demonstrates the difference between onmousemove, onmouseenter and onmouseover events used in JavaScript:

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html> 
  
<head> 
    <title> 
        Difference between mouseover, 
        mouseenter and mousemove events 
    </title> 
      
    <style> 
        body { 
            text-align: center; 
        } 
          
        h1 { 
            color: green; 
        } 
          
        div { 
            margin: 15px 50px 0px 50px; 
            border: 2px solid black; 
            padding: 10px; 
            text-align: center; 
            background-color: #2ec96c; 
        } 
          
        p { 
            color: white; 
        } 
          
        h3 { 
            background-color: white; 
            border-radius: 10px; 
        } 
    </style> 
  
    <script> 
        function over(e) { 
            document.getElementById("sover").innerHTML++; 
        } 
  
        function enter(e) { 
            document.getElementById("senter").innerHTML++; 
        } 
  
        function move(e) { 
            document.getElementById("smove").innerHTML++; 
        } 
    </script> 
</head> 
  
<body> 
    <h1>GeeksforGereks</h1> 
    <h4>Mouseover, Mouseenter and Mousemove Example</h4> 
    <div class="over" onmouseover="over(this)"> 
        <h3>Mouseover event triggered:  
          <span id="sover">0</span>  
          times 
        </h3> 
        <p> 
          This event occurs every time when the mouse pointer 
          enters the div element or its child elements 
          (here <h3> or <p>). 
        </p> 
    </div> 
  
    <div class="enter" onmouseenter="enter(this)"> 
        <h3>Mouseenter event triggered: 
          <span id="senter">0</span> 
          times 
        </h3> 
        <p> 
          This event occurs only when the mouse pointer enters 
          the div element. 
        </p> 
    </div> 
  
    <div class="move" onmousemove="move(this)"> 
        <h3>Mousemove event triggered:  
          <span id="smove">0</span>  
          times 
        </h3> 
        <p> 
          This event occurs every time the mouse pointer is 
          moved over the div element. 
        </p> 
    </div> 
  
</body> 
  
</html> 