Event.target

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.

// Assuming there is a 'list' variable containing an instance of an HTML ul element.
function hide(e) {
  // Unless list items are separated by a margin, e.target should be different than e.currentTarget
  e.target.style.visibility = 'hidden';
}

list.addEventListener('click', hide, false);

// If some element (<li> element or a link within an <li> element for instance) is clicked, it will disappear.
// It only requires a single listener to do that

Specifications

Browser compatibility

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

• Comparison of Event Targets