jQuery event.currentTarget Property

Posted in jQuery Tutorial

Updated on Oct 13, 2024

By Mari Selvan

👁️ 37 - Views

⏳ 4 mins

💬 1 Comment

Photo Credit to CodeToFun

🙋 Introduction

jQuery simplifies web development by providing powerful tools for handling events and interacting with DOM elements. One such tool is the event.currentTarget property, which allows you to access the current DOM element that triggered an event. Understanding and leveraging this property can greatly enhance your ability to create interactive and responsive web applications.

In this guide, we'll delve into the usage of the jQuery event.currentTarget property with clear examples to help you grasp its functionality and potential.

🧠 Understanding event.currentTarget Property

The event.currentTarget property refers to the DOM element to which the event handler is currently bound. It differs from event.target, which refers to the element that triggered the event. currentTarget remains constant throughout the event bubbling process, making it useful for accessing the element that handles the event, especially in delegated event handling scenarios.

💡 Syntax

The syntax for the event.currentTarget property is straightforward:

syntax.js

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event.currentTarget

📝 Example

Accessing the Current Target Element:

Suppose you have a list of items, and you want to highlight the clicked item using jQuery. You can use the event.currentTarget property to access the clicked element within the event handler function:
index.html
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```
<ul>
  <li>Item 1</li>
  <li>Item 2</li>
  <li>Item 3</li>
</ul>
```
example.js
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```
$("li").click(function(event) {
  $(event.currentTarget).addClass("highlight");
});
```
In this example, when you click on an <li> element, the highlight class is added to the clicked item.
Delegated Event Handling:

Delegated event handling is a powerful technique for handling events on dynamically added elements. You can use event.currentTarget within delegated event handlers to refer to the element to which the handler is attached. For example:
index.html
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```
<div id="container">
  <button>Add Element</button>
</div>
```
example.js
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```
$("#container").on("click", "button", function(event) {
  console.log($(event.currentTarget).text());
});
```
In this scenario, clicking the "Add Element" button logs the text of the button (Add Element) to the console.
Preventing Event Bubbling:

You can also use event.stopPropagation() in combination with event.currentTarget to prevent event bubbling and handle events more precisely. For instance:
index.html
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```
<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">
      Click me
  </div>
</div>
```
example.js
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```
$("#outer").click(function(event) {
  console.log("Outer clicked");
});
$("#inner").click(function(event) {
  event.stopPropagation();
  console.log("Inner clicked");
});
```
With this setup, clicking the inner <div> will log "Inner clicked" to the console without triggering the outer click event.

🎉 Conclusion

The jQuery event.currentTarget property provides a convenient way to access the current DOM element within event handler functions. Whether you're highlighting clicked elements, implementing delegated event handling, or preventing event bubbling, understanding and utilizing this property can greatly enhance your ability to create interactive and responsive web applications.

By incorporating event.currentTarget into your jQuery code, you can write cleaner, more efficient event handling logic.