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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-28T14:19:38+00:00

I would like to get the current element (whatever element that is) in an

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I would like to get the current element (whatever element that is) in an HTML document that I clicked. I am using:

$(document).click(function () {
    alert($(this).text());
});

But very strangely, I get the text of the whole(!) document, not the clicked element.

How to get only the element I clicked on?

Example

<body>
    <div class="myclass">test</div>
    <p>asdfasfasf</p>
</body>

If I click on the "test" text, I would like to be able to read the attribute with $(this).attr("myclass") in jQuery.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You need to use the event.target which is the element which originally triggered the event. The this in your example code refers to document.

    In jQuery, that’s…

    $(document).click(function(event) {
    var text = $(event.target).text();
});

    Without jQuery…

    document.addEventListener('click', function(e) {
    e = e || window.event;
    var target = e.target || e.srcElement,
        text = target.textContent || target.innerText;   
}, false);

    Also, ensure if you need to support < IE9 that you use attachEvent() instead of addEventListener().

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