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.
Example
event.currentTarget
is interesting to use when attaching the same event handler to several elements.
function hide(e){ e.currentTarget.style.visibility = "hidden"; // 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++){ ps[i].addEventListener('click', hide, false); } // click around and make paragraphs disappear
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
DOM The definition of 'Event.currentTarget' in that specification. |
Living Standard | |
DOM4 The definition of 'Event.currentTarget' in that specification. |
Recommendation | |
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification The definition of 'current event target' in that specification. |
Working Draft | |
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Events Specification The definition of 'Event.currentTarget' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Initial definition |
Browser compatibility
Feature | Chrome | Edge | Firefox (Gecko) | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes)[1] | (Yes) | ? |
Feature | Android | Edge | Firefox Mobile (Gecko) | IE Mobile | Opera Mobile | Safari Mobile |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | ? | (Yes) | ? | ? | ? | ? |
[1] On Internet Explorer 6 through 8, the event model is different. Event listeners are attached with the non-standard EventTarget.attachEvent
method. In this model, there is no equivalent to event.currentTarget
and this
is the global object. One solution to emulate the event.currentTarget
feature is to wrap your handler in a function calling the handler using Function.prototype.call
with the element as a first argument. This way, this
will be the expected value.