The read-only target property of the Event interface is a reference to the object onto which the event was dispatched. It is different from Event.currentTarget when the event handler is called during the bubbling or capturing phase of the event.
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Event: target property
Value
The associated EventTarget.
Example
The event.target property can be used in order to implement event delegation.
js
// Make a list
const ul = document.createElement("ul");
document.body.appendChild(ul);
const li1 = document.createElement("li");
const li2 = document.createElement("li");
ul.appendChild(li1);
ul.appendChild(li2);
function hide(evt) {
// evt.target refers to the clicked <li> element
// This is different than evt.currentTarget, which would refer to the parent <ul> in this context
evt.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 |
|---|
| DOM Standard # ref-for-dom-event-target③ |
Browser compatibility
| Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari | WebView Android | Chrome Android | Firefox for Android | Opera Android | Safari on IOS | Samsung Internet | |
target |
1 | 12 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 4.4 | 18 | 4 | 10.1 | 1 | 1.0 |
See also
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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Event/target