Jquery Chaining vs Callbacks

Question

For jQuery, what's the difference in the outcome of the following two snippets. Anything? Am I correct that the callback and the second item in the chain are both executed upon completion of the first animation?

$(selector).animate({ opacity: 1 }).animate({ opacity: 0.5 });

vs

$(selector).animate({ opacity: 1}, function()
{
    $(this).animate({ opacity: 0.5 });
});

In what type(s) of situation would I want to use one over the other? Would I only use the latter if I needed to do something more sophisticated or switch to a different selector?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

They are effectively the same, so you'd probably just use the first.

Callbacks (the second version) are for running any arbitrary code that isn't automatically queued.

This includes other jQuery methods like .css() for example, which if not in the callback, will run long before the animation is complete.

// .animate() is automatically queued
$(selector).animate({ opacity: 1 }).animate({ opacity: 0.5 });

---

// .css() is not automatically queued, so you'd need a callback
$(selector).animate({ opacity: 1 }, function() {
    $(this).css({ opacity: 0.5 });
});

---

Without the callback...

 // Animation starts ----v
$(selector).animate({ opacity: 1 }).css({ opacity: 0.5 });
 // ...but .css() runs immediately-------------^
 // ...because it isn't automatically added to the queue.