why create var $anchor = $(this); and not just use this.text()?

Question

In line 10 Andrew creates 
var $anchor = $(this);
and later he uses:
  $option.text($anchor.text());
why not disregard line 10 and use $option.text(this.text()); ?

Marcus Parsons · Accepted Answer

Hey @Welby Obeng (https://teamtreehouse.com/yblew),
We can't use this in place of $(this) because these are two separate variables.  this only returns the HTML anchor element that is currently being worked on by each(), while $(this) creates a jQuery object based upon the element currently being worked on by each() that can then be called on by jQuery functions.  The difference between these being that jQuery can't just add properties to an element without it first being a jQuery object; this is so that we can have functions execute on those properties of that object, such as getting the href and text portions of the anchor link, that are set by jQuery after selecting that object using jQuery.
You can see the difference between the two if you add this into your code:
javascript
$("#menu a").each(function() {
//Add two console.log statements, one for each variable in question
  console.log(this);
  console.log($(this));
//your code follows

Samvel Tadevosyan · Answer

You are right you can disregard line 10, but as Marcus mentioned use $(this) instead of this
you'd have:
```JavaScript
$option.text($(this).text());
```
where as u can see quite many paranthesis, that is why Andrew assigned a variable to have more readable code and at the same time to remind us that $(this) object is an anchor element for the function.

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Welby Obeng

Welby Obeng

why create var $anchor = $(this); and not just use this.text()?

2 Answers

Marcus Parsons

Marcus Parsons

Samvel Tadevosyan

Samvel Tadevosyan