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event.target is the object an event was dispatched on; event.currentTarget is the object whose event listener is running. When a click bubbles from a button to a parent, the target is the button while the current target is the parent listener.

How the two event properties differ

Property What it identifies How it behaves during propagation Common use
event.target The EventTarget on which the event was dispatched. Remains associated with the dispatch as the event moves through listeners. Check where an interaction originated, including for event delegation.
event.currentTarget The object to which the listener currently running is attached. Corresponds to each listener in turn, so it can differ between handlers. Identify or act on the element that owns the listener.

In a typical DOM click, target is often the innermost clicked element, but it is an EventTarget, not a guarantee that the value is always an Element. These properties belong to the DOM Event Web API, not to JavaScript’s core language.

What happens when a click bubbles

Suppose a parent contains a button and has a click listener:

<div id="parent">
  Parent
  <button id="child">Click child</button>
</div>
const parent = document.querySelector("#parent");

parent.addEventListener("click", (event) => {
  console.log(event.target);
  console.log(event.currentTarget);
});

If the button is clicked, the listener logs the button as event.target and the parent div as event.currentTarget. If the parent itself is clicked, both properties identify the parent. If the event passes through several listeners, the dispatch target stays associated with the event while currentTarget identifies whichever listener is executing at that moment.

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The same distinction applies during capture and bubbling: propagation order determines when a listener runs, but currentTarget always identifies the listener’s object. MDN’s event-bubbling guide demonstrates the properties in this context.

Using the properties for event delegation

Event delegation puts a listener on a parent and uses the originating target to determine which descendant interaction to handle. Because a target is not necessarily an element or the intended control, check it before calling element methods or acting on a match:

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parent.addEventListener("click", (event) => {
  if (event.target instanceof Element) {
    const button = event.target.closest("button[data-action]");
    if (button && parent.contains(button)) {
      // Handle the matching descendant button.
    }
  }
});

Here, target helps find the descendant control that originated the event. The parent listener remains the currentTarget. The precise filtering should match the page’s markup and behavior; MDN’s Event.target reference also describes its use in delegation.

When currentTarget is available

event.currentTarget is available while its event handler is executing; outside that handler it is null. If asynchronous work needs the listener element, save the reference before awaiting or scheduling a callback:

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parent.addEventListener("click", async (event) => {
  const listenerElement = event.currentTarget;
  await doSomething();
  console.log(listenerElement);
});

Do not rely on reading event.currentTarget after the await; use the saved reference instead. See MDN’s Event.currentTarget reference.

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How currentTarget relates to this

In an ordinary function passed to addEventListener(), this corresponds to event.currentTarget. An arrow function keeps its lexical this instead, so event.currentTarget is the clearer consistent choice when using arrow callbacks. MDN documents this behavior in its addEventListener() reference.

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