jQuery scroll() detect when user stops scrolling

Using jQuery throttle / debounce

jQuery debounce is a nice one for problems like this. jsFidlle

$(window).scroll($.debounce( 250, true, function(){
    $('#scrollMsg').html('SCROLLING!');
}));
$(window).scroll($.debounce( 250, function(){
    $('#scrollMsg').html('DONE!');
}));

The second parameter is the "at_begin" flag. Here I've shown how to execute code both at "scroll start" and "scroll finish".

Using Lodash

As suggested by Barry P, jsFiddle, underscore or lodash also have a debounce, each with slightly different apis.

$(window).scroll(_.debounce(function(){
    $('#scrollMsg').html('SCROLLING!');
}, 150, { 'leading': true, 'trailing': false }));

$(window).scroll(_.debounce(function(){
    $('#scrollMsg').html('STOPPED!');
}, 150));

$(window).scroll(function() {
    clearTimeout($.data(this, 'scrollTimer'));
    $.data(this, 'scrollTimer', setTimeout(function() {
        // do something
        console.log("Haven't scrolled in 250ms!");
    }, 250));
});

Update

I wrote an extension to enhance jQuery's default on-event-handler. It attaches an event handler function for one or more events to the selected elements and calls the handler function 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 such.

It is important to check the github-repo for updates!

https://github.com/yckart/jquery.unevent.js

;(function ($) {
    var on = $.fn.on, timer;
    $.fn.on = function () {
        var args = Array.apply(null, arguments);
        var last = args[args.length - 1];

        if (isNaN(last) || (last === 1 && args.pop())) return on.apply(this, args);

        var delay = args.pop();
        var fn = args.pop();

        args.push(function () {
            var self = this, params = arguments;
            clearTimeout(timer);
            timer = setTimeout(function () {
                fn.apply(self, params);
            }, delay);
        });

        return on.apply(this, args);
    };
}(this.jQuery || this.Zepto));

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

$(window).on('scroll', function(e) {
    console.log(e.type + '-event was 250ms not triggered');
}, 250);

http://yckart.github.com/jquery.unevent.js/

(this demo uses resize instead of scroll, but who cares?!)

Rob W suggected I check out another post here on stack that was essentially a similar post to my original one. Which reading through that I found a link to a site:

http://james.padolsey.com/javascript/special-scroll-events-for-jquery/

This actually ended up helping solve my problem very nicely after a little tweaking for my own needs, but over all helped get a lot of the guff out of the way and saved me about 4 hours of figuring it out on my own.

Seeing as this post seems to have some merit, I figured I would come back and provide the code found originally on the link mentioned, just in case the author ever decided to go a different direction with the site and ended up taking down the link.

(function(){

    var special = jQuery.event.special,
        uid1 = 'D' + (+new Date()),
        uid2 = 'D' + (+new Date() + 1);

    special.scrollstart = {
        setup: function() {

            var timer,
                handler =  function(evt) {

                    var _self = this,
                        _args = arguments;

                    if (timer) {
                        clearTimeout(timer);
                    } else {
                        evt.type = 'scrollstart';
                        jQuery.event.handle.apply(_self, _args);
                    }

                    timer = setTimeout( function(){
                        timer = null;
                    }, special.scrollstop.latency);

                };

            jQuery(this).bind('scroll', handler).data(uid1, handler);

        },
        teardown: function(){
            jQuery(this).unbind( 'scroll', jQuery(this).data(uid1) );
        }
    };

    special.scrollstop = {
        latency: 300,
        setup: function() {

            var timer,
                    handler = function(evt) {

                    var _self = this,
                        _args = arguments;

                    if (timer) {
                        clearTimeout(timer);
                    }

                    timer = setTimeout( function(){

                        timer = null;
                        evt.type = 'scrollstop';
                        jQuery.event.handle.apply(_self, _args);

                    }, special.scrollstop.latency);

                };

            jQuery(this).bind('scroll', handler).data(uid2, handler);

        },
        teardown: function() {
            jQuery(this).unbind( 'scroll', jQuery(this).data(uid2) );
        }
    };

})();

I agreed with some of the comments above that listening for a timeout wasn't accurate enough as that will trigger when you stop moving the scroll bar for long enough instead of when you stop scrolling. I think a better solution is to listen for the user letting go of the mouse (mouseup) as soon as they start scrolling:

$(window).scroll(function(){
    $('#scrollMsg').html('SCROLLING!');
    var stopListener = $(window).mouseup(function(){ // listen to mouse up
        $('#scrollMsg').html('STOPPED SCROLLING!');
        stopListner(); // Stop listening to mouse up after heard for the first time 
    });
});

and an example of it working can be seen in this JSFiddle