$this vs $(this) in jQuery

Question

I've seen some discussions on SO regarding $(this) vs $this in jQuery, and they make sense to me. (See discussion here for an example.)

But what about the snippet below, from the jQuery website plugin tutorial showing how chainability works?

(function ($) {      $.fn.lockDimensions = function (type) {          return this.each(function () {              var $this = $(this);              if (!type || type == 'width') {                 $this.width($this.width());             }              if (!type || type == 'height') {                 $this.height($this.height());             }          });      }; })(jQuery); 

What does $this represent above? Just when I think I have it figured out ...

Answer 1

$this is just an ordinary variable. The $ character is a valid character in variable names, so $this acts the same as any other non-reserved variable name. It's functionally identical to calling a variable JellyBean.

Answer 2

You usually use var $this = $(this); to avoid creating a new jQuery object more often than necessary. In case of the code below you only create one object instead of two/four. It is completely unrelated to chainability.

You could also call it that, $thi$ or anything else (don't use the latter one though, it's ugly :p) as $ is just a simple character in JavaScript, exactly like a-z are.