jQuery selector reference to self

Question

Simple question:

How do I refer to self without using $.each() for example when I want to set html() to own attribute?

$('*[rel]').html($(this).attr('rel')); // nope
$('*[rel]').html($(self).attr('rel')); // nah
$('*[rel]').html($(sender).attr('rel')); // undefined
$('*[rel]').html($(target).attr('rel')); // still undefined
$('*[rel]').html($(???).attr('rel')); // this isn't even correct syntax
$('*[rel]').html($(beer).attr('rel')); // well that would be tasty
$('*[rel]').html($(woman).attr('rel')); // not in this life
$('*[rel]').html($(god help me!).attr('rel')); // He probably doesn't even know how to use a computer
$('*[rel]').html($(i give up).attr('rel')); // unexpected... o'rly?

Answer 1

You can pass a function instead of a a string.

$('[rel]').html(function() {
    return $(this).attr('rel');
});

The reason why all of your examples don't work is because in each case your code executes long before the selector has been evaluated. This is something you really need to understand - it's even more relevant when callbacks are involved e.g. for AJAX or timers: When you put code somewhere it's executed at this point. So foo(some code here) will always execute the code that's part of the function argument no matter what foo does. The only reason to avoid this is passing a function that contains this code - that was the function expression is evaluated (which evaluates to a callable function). Then the actual function (which obviously needs to expect a callable instead of a simple value) can invoke the passed function whenever it's appropriate.