Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

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
229,732 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,732 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.