Question

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jQuery $(this) vs this

This code in this video Tutorial

in a Very useful blog jquery for designers

$('.navigation').each(function () {
    var $links = $('a',this);
    $links.click(function  () {
        var $link = $(this),
            link = this;
            if ($link.is('.selected')) {
                return;
        }
        $links.removeClass('selected');
        $link.addClass('selected')
    });
});

What is the difference between $(this) and this?

Please explain the simple difference in coding.

Answer 1

Within the handler being pased into click, this will refer to the DOM element that the click handler was attached to. Calling $() on it ($(this)) wraps that up in a jQuery instance, making various jQuery functions available to you.

In your quoted code, the link = this line is unnecessary as nothing ever uses link. The $link = $(this) line, though, creates a jQuery wrapper around the link so you can use functions like is and addClass.

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Off-topic

1. You probably want to change if ($link.is('.selected')) to if ($link.hasClass('selected')) so that jQuery doesn’t have to parse the CSS selector.
2. You have a typo, the “o” in removeClass is missing.