Difference between e.target and e.currentTarget

Question

I don't understand the difference, they both seem the same but I guess they are not.

Any examples of when to use one or the other would be appreciated.

Answer 1

e.target is what triggers the event dispatcher to trigger and e.currentTarget is what you assigned your listener to.

Answer 2

Ben is completely correct in his answer - so keep what he says in mind. What I'm about to tell you isn't a full explanation, but it's a very easy way to remember how e.target, e.currentTarget work in relation to mouse events and the display list:

e.target = The thing under the mouse (as ben says... the thing that triggers the event). e.currentTarget = The thing before the dot... (see below)

So if you have 10 buttons inside a clip with an instance name of "btns" and you do:

btns.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, onOver); // btns = the thing before the dot of an addEventListener call function onOver(e:MouseEvent):void{   trace(e.target.name, e.currentTarget.name); } 

e.target will be one of the 10 buttons and e.currentTarget will always be the "btns" clip.

It's worth noting that if you changed the MouseEvent to a ROLL_OVER or set the property btns.mouseChildren to false, e.target and e.currentTarget will both always be "btns".