jQuery style: when is it better to use a var for multiple operations?

Question

Say I have an event handler bound to an element, e.g.

$('#mybutton').click(function() {
    // CODE
});

And I want to do multiple operations on the clicked element (or, really, any element set) inside the handler.

For CODE I could do:

$(this).something();
$(this).somethingElse();

or:

var abc = $(this);
abc.something();
abc.somethingElse();

(assume there's a reason to not chain the calls, eg. a conditional statement on somethingElse, omitted here for brevity)

When is it preferable to use the var?
Certainly it's faster to not run the selector multiple times, but I'm asking about coding style rather than functional efficiency.

If not for functional efficiency, this is personal opinion surely? — CodingIntrigue, May 21 '15 at 13:18
@RGraham: More "best practices" than "personal opinion", but you are essentially correct. (best practices) = opinion * time * usage :) — dlchambers, May 21 '15 at 13:42
@squint: Agreed it's a dup. I suspected that it had already been asked but couldn't concoct the right search terms to find it. — dlchambers, May 21 '15 at 13:45

Glen · Answer 1 · 2015-05-26T07:31:45.510

1

Personally for me, if you use something more than once it should be placed into a variable. It looks better and is easier to read.

edited May 26 '15 at 07:31

answered May 21 '15 at 13:17

Glen

344
1
14

jQuery style: when is it better to use a var for multiple operations?

1 Answers1