What does $($(this).attr('href')) mean in jQuery?

Question

I am fairly new to jQuery and understand the basics, but I am having issues targeting certain pieces of the page so I need to fill in some gaps in knowledge.

I do understand $(this).attr('href') would get the attribute of href within the currently focused/clicked element.

But what if it’s written like this $($(this).attr('href'));?

It’s code I have in a script I didn’t write, and I’m not sure if that’s just an error or intentional.

I have a feeling this is pretty basic but how to search for $($())? And when I search for $($(this).attr('href')) all I get is documentation on the original clause which I already understand.

Is it just a typo or a separate use case?

Answer 1

As you said, $(this).attr('href') returns the matched element's href. That's a string. The string is then passed to $, which doesn't know it's a href so treats it as it does any other string: it parses it, decides if it looks like HTML or a selector, then returns the resulting jQuery instance.

Presumably, this is in some context where the href happens to also be either a valid selector or valid HTML. As was mentioned in comments, a likely candidate is a string like #something, which as a href links to the scroll position of the element with ID something, and as a selector tells jQuery to select the same element.