Difference between $(this) and this in jquery

jquery this
Sheldon Fernandes picture Sheldon Fernandes · Sep 3, 2010 · Viewed 24.9k times · Source

What is the fundamental difference between using $(this) vs this

$('.viewComments').click(function(ev){
    //returns the desired value
    alert(this.getAttribute('id'));

    //Gives an error sayin function is not defined 
    alert($(this).getAttribute('id'));

    //returns the desired value
    alert($(this).attr('id'));
});

What I thought was "$(this)" will contain all functions that "this" has and more..But that doesn't seem to be the case.

So what exactly is $(this)? and

Hw do I know what functions are available when I'm using it? (I know I can get them through firebug. but I would like to know if there any some other way- some doc may be)

Answer

Chris Jester-Young picture Chris Jester-Young · Sep 3, 2010

this is the DOM object, whereas $(this) is the jQuery wrapper around same.

When using this, you can call DOM methods on it, but not jQuery methods. When using $(this), you can call jQuery methods on it, but not DOM methods.

Related questions

What's the difference between '$(this)' and 'this'?

I am currently working through this tutorial: Getting Started with jQuery For the two examples below: $("#orderedlist").find("li").each(function (i) { $(this).append(" BAM! " + i); }); $("#reset").click(function () { $("form").each(function () { this.reset(); }); }); Notice in the first example, we …

Read More
How can I exclude $(this) from a jQuery selector?

I have something like this: <div class="content"> <a href="#">A</a> </div> <div class="content"> <a href="#">B</a> </div> <div class="…

Read More
How do I pass the this context to a function?

I thought this would be something I could easily google, but maybe I'm not asking the right question... How do I set whatever "this" refers to in a given javascript function? for example, like with most of jQuery's functions such …

Read More