A reference to the object that dispatched the event. It is different from event.currentTarget
when the event handler is called during the bubbling or capturing phase of the event.
Syntax
theTarget = event.target
Example
The event.target
property can be used in order to implement event delegation.
// Make a list var ul = document.createElement('ul'); document.body.appendChild(ul); var li1 = document.createElement('li'); var li2 = document.createElement('li'); ul.appendChild(li1); ul.appendChild(li2); function hide(e){ // e.target refers to the clicked <li> element // This is different than e.currentTarget which would refer to the parent <ul> in this context e.target.style.visibility = 'hidden'; } // Attach the listener to the list // It will fire when each <li> is clicked ul.addEventListener('click', hide, false);
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
DOM The definition of 'Event.target' in that specification. |
Living Standard | |
DOM4 The definition of 'Event.target' in that specification. |
Obsolete | |
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Events Specification The definition of 'Event.target' in that specification. |
Obsolete | Initial definition |
Browser compatibility
Feature | Chrome | Edge | Firefox (Gecko) | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) |
Feature | Android | Edge | Firefox Mobile (Gecko) | IE Mobile | Opera Mobile | Safari Mobile |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) |
Compatibility notes
On IE 6-8 the event model is different. Event listeners are attached with the non-standard EventTarget.attachEvent
method. In this model, the event object has a Event.srcElement
property, instead of the target
property, and it has the same semantics as event.target
.
function hide(e) { // Support IE6-8 var target = e.target || e.srcElement; target.style.visibility = 'hidden'; }
See also
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