Example
In the example below, there's a click event bound to the outer box, with an id
thebox
. There's an inner box with an id hello
.
Since hello
is within thebox
, clicking on hello
will trigger the click
event bound to thebox
. But you can also click in the empty space outside of
hello
to trigger the event as well.
Just click stuff and you'll see what I mean.
Why you should care
Suppose you're in a situation where you have access to an event object but not
the DOM element. (In other words, no $(this)
). If you want access to the DOM
element that's associated with the event handler you defined, you should use
currentTarget.
TL;DR
target
is whatever you actually clicked on. It can vary, as this can be within an element that the event was bound to.currentTarget
is the element you actually bound the event to. This will never change.
Need more info?
Visit the MDN docs on currentTarget