JQuery: How to call RESIZE event only once it's FINISHED resizing?

How do I call a function once the browser windows has FINISHED resizing?

I'm trying to do it like so, but am having problems. I'm using the JQuery Resize event function:

$(window).resize(function() {
  ... // how to call only once the browser has FINISHED resizing?
});

However, this function is called continuously if the user is manually resizing the browser window. Which means, it might call this function dozens of times in short interval of time.

How can I call the resize function only a single time (once the browser window has finished resizing)?

UPDATE

Also without having to use a global variable.

Here is an example using thejh's instructions

You can store a reference id to any setInterval or setTimeout. Like this:

var loop = setInterval(func, 30);

// some time later clear the interval
clearInterval(loop);

Debounce.

function debouncer( func , timeout ) {
   var timeoutID , timeout = timeout || 200;
   return function () {
      var scope = this , args = arguments;
      clearTimeout( timeoutID );
      timeoutID = setTimeout( function () {
          func.apply( scope , Array.prototype.slice.call( args ) );
      } , timeout );
   }
}


$( window ).resize( debouncer( function ( e ) {
    // do stuff 
} ) );

Note, you can use this method for anything you want to debounce (key events etc).

Tweak the timeout parameter for optimal desired effect.

You can use setTimeout() and clearTimeout() in conjunction with jQuery.data:

$(window).resize(function() {
    clearTimeout($.data(this, 'resizeTimer'));
    $.data(this, 'resizeTimer', setTimeout(function() {
        //do something
        alert("Haven't resized in 200ms!");
    }, 200));
});

Update

I wrote an extension to enhance jQuery's default on (& bind)-event-handler. It attaches an event handler function for one or more events to the selected elements if the event was not triggered for a given interval. This is useful if you want to fire a callback only after a delay, like the resize event, or else. https://github.com/yckart/jquery.unevent.js

;(function ($) {
    var methods = { on: $.fn.on, bind: $.fn.bind };
    $.each(methods, function(k){
        $.fn[k] = function () {
            var args = [].slice.call(arguments),
                delay = args.pop(),
                fn = args.pop(),
                timer;

            args.push(function () {
                var self = this,
                    arg = arguments;
                clearTimeout(timer);
                timer = setTimeout(function(){
                    fn.apply(self, [].slice.call(arg));
                }, delay);
            });

            return methods[k].apply(this, isNaN(delay) ? arguments : args);
        };
    });
}(jQuery));

Use it like any other on or bind-event handler, except that you can pass an extra parameter as a last:

$(window).on('resize', function(e) {
    console.log(e.type + '-event was 200ms not triggered');
}, 200);

http://jsfiddle.net/ARTsinn/EqqHx/

var lightbox_resize = false;
$(window).resize(function() {
    console.log(true);
    if (lightbox_resize)
        clearTimeout(lightbox_resize);
    lightbox_resize = setTimeout(function() {
        console.log('resize');
    }, 500);
});

Just to add to the above, it is common to get unwanted resize events because of scroll bars popping in and out, here is some code to avoid that:

function registerResize(f) {
    $(window).resize(function() {
        clearTimeout(this.resizeTimeout);
        this.resizeTimeout = setTimeout(function() {
            var oldOverflow = document.body.style.overflow;
            document.body.style.overflow = "hidden";
            var currHeight = $(window).height(),
                currWidth = $(window).width();
            document.body.style.overflow = oldOverflow;

            var prevUndefined = (typeof this.prevHeight === 'undefined' || typeof this.prevWidth === 'undefined');
            if (prevUndefined || this.prevHeight !== currHeight || this.prevWidth !== currWidth) {
                //console.log('Window size ' + (prevUndefined ? '' : this.prevHeight + "," + this.prevWidth) + " -> " + currHeight + "," + currWidth);
                this.prevHeight = currHeight;
                this.prevWidth = currWidth;

                f(currHeight, currWidth);
            }
        }, 200);
    });
    $(window).resize(); // initialize
}

registerResize(function(height, width) {
    // this will be called only once per resize regardless of scrollbars changes
});

see jsfiddle

Underscore.js has a couple of great methods for this task: throttle and debounce. Even if you're not using Underscore, take a look at the source of these functions. Here's an example:

var redraw = function() {'redraw logic here'};
var debouncedRedraw = _.debounce(redraw, 750);
$(window).on('resize', debouncedRedraw);

This is my approach:

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){
    var tos = {};
    var idi = 0;
    var fn  = function(id)
    {
        var len = Object.keys(tos).length;
    
        if(len == 0)
            return;

        to = tos[id];
        delete tos[id];
    
        if(len-1 == 0)
            console.log('Resize finished trigger');
    };

    window.addEventListener('resize', function(){
        idi++;
        var id = 'id-'+idi;
        tos[id] = window.setTimeout(function(){fn(id)}, 500);
    });
});

The resize-event-listener catches all incoming resize calls, creates a timeout-function for each and saves the timeout-identifier along with an iterating number prepended by 'id-' (to be usable as array key) in the tos-array.

each time, the timout triggers, it calls the fn-function, that checks, if that was the last timeout in the tos array (the fn-function deletes every executed timout). if true (= if(len-1 == 0)), the resizing is finished.

jQuery provides an off method to remove event handler

$(window).resize(function(){
    if(magic == true) {
        $(window).off('resize', arguments.callee);
    }
});