How to get the focused element with jQuery?

Question

Using jQuery, how can I get the input element that has the caret's (cursor's) focus?

Or in other words, how to determine if an input has the caret's focus?

Answer 1

// Get the focused element: var $focused = $(':focus');  // No jQuery: var focused = document.activeElement;  // Does the element have focus: var hasFocus = $('foo').is(':focus');  // No jQuery: elem === elem.ownerDocument.activeElement; 

Which one should you use? quoting the jQuery docs:

As with other pseudo-class selectors (those that begin with a ":"), it is recommended to precede :focus with a tag name or some other selector; otherwise, the universal selector ("*") is implied. In other words, the bare $(':focus') is equivalent to $('*:focus'). If you are looking for the currently focused element, $( document.activeElement ) will retrieve it without having to search the whole DOM tree.

The answer is:

document.activeElement 

And if you want a jQuery object wrapping the element:

$(document.activeElement) 

Answer 2

$( document.activeElement ) 

Will retrieve it without having to search the whole DOM tree as recommended on the jQuery documentation