jQuery: $().click(fn) vs. $().bind('click',fn);

Question

When using jQuery to hookup an event handler, is there any difference between using the click method

$().click(fn)

versus using the bind method

$().bind('click',fn);

Other than bind's optional data parameter.

Answer 1

For what it's worth, from the jQuery source:

jQuery.each( ("blur,focus,load,resize,scroll,unload,click,dblclick," +
    "mousedown,mouseup,mousemove,mouseover,mouseout,mouseenter,mouseleave," +
    "change,select,submit,keydown,keypress,keyup,error").split(","), function(i, name){

    // Handle event binding
    jQuery.fn[name] = function(fn){
        return fn ? this.bind(name, fn) : this.trigger(name);
    };
});

So no, there's no difference -

$().click(fn)

calls

$().bind('click',fn)

Answer 2

+1 for Matthew's answer, but I thought I should mention that you can also bind more than one event handler in one go using bind

$('#myDiv').bind('mouseover focus', function() {
    $(this).addClass('focus')
});

which is the much cleaner equivalent to:

var myFunc = function() {
    $(this).addClass('focus');
};
$('#myDiv')
    .mouseover(myFunc)
    .focus(myFunc)
;

Answer 3

There is one difference in that you can bind custom events using the second form that you have. Otherwise, they seem to be synonymous. See: jQuery Event Docs

Answer 4

There is the [data] parameter of bind which will occur only at bind-time, once.

You can also specify custom events as the first parameter of bind.

Answer 5

I find the .click() is way more logical, but I guess it's how you think of things.

$('#my_button').click(function() { alert('BOOM!'); });

Seems to be about as dead simple as you get.

Answer 6

If you have Google Chrome, their developer tools have an event listener tool, select the element you want to spy its' event.

You'll find that trying the both ways lead to the same result, so they are equivalent.

Answer 7

I prefer .bind() because of its interface consistency with .live(). Not only does it make the code more readable, but it makes it easier to change a line of code to use one method instead of the other.