Get value of element on which the event fired

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Select inner text (jQuery)

I have a span:

<span class="test"> target_string </span>

And the event, that is fired on click on any element of the page.

$('body').click(function(event){
  if ($(event.target).attr('class') == 'test'){
    alert(???);
  }
}

How can I obtain target_string value?

score 29 · Accepted Answer · answered May 02 '12 at 20:55

29

Use $(event.target).text() to get the text.

answered May 02 '12 at 20:55

gen_Eric

2

@zerkms Because `$(this)` would refer to the body. – Niet the Dark Absol May 02 '12 at 20:57
@zerkms: The event is bound to `'body'`. `this` would be `'body'`, not the clicked element. – gen_Eric May 02 '12 at 20:57
1

@zerkms $(this) would refer to the body element being clicked, not the event.target. – Jonathan Payne May 02 '12 at 20:57
1

thanks - i needed to use val() instead of text(), but this lead me in the right direction – deebs Dec 23 '15 at 18:03

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered May 02 '12 at 20:59

3

Possibly more efficient to delegate from the body:

$('body').on('click', '.test', function(event){
    alert($(this).text())
});

answered May 02 '12 at 20:59

Simon Smith

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 02 '12 at 20:57

1

Try below,

$('body').click(function(event){
  var $targ = $(event.target);
  if ($targ.hasClass('test')){
    alert($targ.text());
  }
}

answered May 02 '12 at 20:57

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 02 '12 at 21:19

0

Not sure if you plan to work with other elements inside that event handler besides those with a class of test, but this may be more concise:

$('.test').click(function(event){
    alert($(this).text());
});

answered May 02 '12 at 21:19

Brian

4 Answers4