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.

Syntax

var currentEventTarget = event.currentTarget;

Value

EventTarget

Example

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

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
DOM The definition of 'Event.currentTarget' in that specification.	Living Standard
DOM4 The definition of 'Event.currentTarget' in that specification.	Obsolete
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification The definition of 'current event target' in that specification.	Obsolete
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Events Specification The definition of 'Event.currentTarget' in that specification.	Obsolete	Initial definition

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`currentTarget`	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 9 Full support 9 No support 6 — 9 Notes Notes 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.	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support 10	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 10	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes

Legend

Full support: Full support
See implementation notes.: See implementation notes.