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JavaScript jQuery Basics (2014) Creating a Spoiler Revealer Perfect

Terrence Autry
Terrence Autry
3,170 Points
Posted by Terrence Autry
Terrence Autry
3,170 Points

How do you know what element "this" is referring too?

I think the first "this" refers to the span element, and the second "this" refers to the button. I'm trying to understand how you know which "this" refers to which element.

1 Answer

andren
andren
28,558 Points
andren
andren
28,558 Points

In the context of direct jQuery event handlers this always refers to the element that the handler is attached to. So this refers to the button on both of the lines. The reason why the first line ends up dealing with the span element is that the prev method is called on it.

prev is a jQuery method that returns the sibling element that precedes the element you call it on, since the button comes after the span element that is the element that the prev method returns. Then show is called on that element.