jQuery / Ajax - $.ajax() Passing Parameters to Callback - Good Pattern to Use?

Question

JavaScript code I'm starting with:

function doSomething(url) {  
   $.ajax({
      type: "GET",  
      url: url,  
      dataType: "xml",  
      success: rssToTarget  
   });  
}    

Pattern I would like to use:

//where elem is the target that should receive new items via DOM (appendChild)
function doSomething(url, elem) {
   $.ajax({
      type: "GET",
      url: url,
      dataType: "xml",
      success: rssToTarget(elem)
   });
}  

I don't think I can get the callback to work this way, right? What is the proper pattern? I don't want to use global variables necessarily to temporarily hold the elem or elem name.

Answer 1

Like this...

function doSomething(url, elem) {
  $.ajax({
     type: "GET",
     url: url,
     dataType: "xml",
     success: function(xml) {
       rssToTarget(xml, elem);
     }
  });
}

Answer to your comment: Does use of anonymous functions affect performance?