Event.currentTarget
The currentTarget
read-only property of the
Event
interface identifies the current target for the event, as the event
traverses the DOM. It always refers to the element to which the event handler has been
attached, as opposed to Event.target
, which identifies the element on
which the event occurred and which may be its descendant.
Value
An EventTarget
representing the object to which the current event handler is attached.
Examples
Event.currentTarget
is interesting to use when attaching the same event
handler to several elements.
function hide(e){
e.currentTarget.style.visibility = 'hidden';
console.log(e.currentTarget);
// When this function is used as an event handler: this === e.currentTarget
}
var ps = document.getElementsByTagName('p');
for(var i = 0; i < ps.length; i++){
// console: print the clicked <p> element
ps[i].addEventListener('click', hide, false);
}
// console: print <body>
document.body.addEventListener('click', hide, false);
// Click around and make paragraphs disappear
Note: The value of event.currentTarget
is only available while the event is being handled.
If you console.log()
the event
object, storing it in a variable,
and then look for the currentTarget
key in the console, its value will be null
.
Instead, you should either use console.log(event.currentTarget)
to be
able to view it in the console or use the debugger
statement,
which will pause the execution of your code thus showing you the value of event.currentTarget
.
Specifications
Specification |
---|
DOM Standard # ref-for-dom-event-currenttarget② |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser