Event: target property

Note: This feature is available in Web Workers .

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.

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

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also