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JavaScript Interactive Web Pages with JavaScript Traversing and Manipulating the DOM with JavaScript Perform: Appending and Removing Elements

Posted by Alexander Davison
Alexander Davison
65,469 Points

Not understanding what "this" is

Can someone explain this to me? I am not quite understanding...

2 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,275 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,275 Points

Someone asked a similar question just recently. Here's what I said then:

There's an entire 13-minute workshop for Understanding "this" in JavaScript.

The short version is that it stands for the current context. Within an object method, for example, it would represent the object itself. In an event handler, it would be the element that triggered the event.

Alexander Davison
Alexander Davison
65,469 Points

Thank you!

Matthew Batman
Matthew Batman
30,187 Points
Matthew Batman
Matthew Batman
30,187 Points

There's actually a Treehouse workshop on this that you may want to check out. I think of this as the context of what's calling this, though that may not help. As a general practice, while you're new, anytime you use or see this, trying declaring console.log(this).

Alexander Davison
Alexander Davison
65,469 Points

Thank you for your support! It really helps.