Jquery mouseenter() vs mouseover()

Question

So after reading a recently answered question i am unclear if i really understand the difference between the mouseenter() and mouseover(). The post states

MouseOver():

Will fire upon entering an element and whenever any mouse movements occur within the element.

MouseEnter():

Will fire upon entering an element.

I came up with a fiddle that uses both and they seem to be quite similar. Can someone please explain to me the difference between the two ?

I have also tried reading the JQuery definitions, both say the same thing.

The mouseover event is sent to an element when the mouse pointer enters the element

The mouseenter event is sent to an element when the mouse pointer enters the element.

Can someone please clarify with an example?

Answer 1

This is one of the best examples I have found of:

• mouseenter
• mouseover
• mouseout
• mouseleave

http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/5247027

Answer 2

See the example code and demo at the bottom of the jquery documentation page:

http://api.jquery.com/mouseenter/

... mouseover fires when the pointer moves into the child element as well, while mouseenter fires only when the pointer moves into the bound element.

Answer 3

The mouseenter event differs from mouseover in the way it handles event bubbling. The mouseenter event, only triggers its handler when the mouse enters the element it is bound to, not a descendant. Refer: https://api.jquery.com/mouseenter/

The mouseleave event differs from mouseout in the way it handles event bubbling. The mouseleave event, only triggers its handler when the mouse leaves the element it is bound to, not a descendant. Refer: https://api.jquery.com/mouseleave/

Answer 4

This example demonstrates the difference between the mousemove, mouseenter and mouseover events:

https://jsfiddle.net/z8g613yd/

HTML:

<div onmousemove="myMoveFunction()">
    <p>onmousemove: <br> <span id="demo">Mouse over me!</span></p>
</div>

<div onmouseenter="myEnterFunction()">
    <p>onmouseenter: <br> <span id="demo2">Mouse over me!</span></p>
</div>

<div onmouseover="myOverFunction()">
    <p>onmouseover: <br> <span id="demo3">Mouse over me!</span></p>
</div>

CSS:

div {
    width: 200px;
    height: 100px;
    border: 1px solid black;
    margin: 10px;
    float: left;
    padding: 30px;
    text-align: center;
    background-color: lightgray;
}

p {
    background-color: white;
    height: 50px;
}

p span {
    background-color: #86fcd4;
    padding: 0 20px;
}

JS:

var x = 0;
var y = 0;
var z = 0;

function myMoveFunction() {
    document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = z += 1;
}

function myEnterFunction() {
    document.getElementById("demo2").innerHTML = x += 1;
}

function myOverFunction() {
    document.getElementById("demo3").innerHTML = y += 1;
}

• onmousemove : occurs every time the mouse pointer is moved over the div element.
• onmouseenter : only occurs when the mouse pointer enters the div element.
• onmouseover : occurs when the mouse pointer enters the div element, and its child elements (p and span).

Answer 5

You see the behavior when your target element contains child elements:

http://jsfiddle.net/ZCWvJ/7/

Each time your mouse enters or leaves a child element, mouseover is triggered, but not mouseenter.

$('#my_div').bind("mouseover mouseenter", function(e) {
  var el = $("#" + e.type);
  var n = +el.text();
  el.text(++n);
});

#my_div {
  padding: 0 20px 20px 0;
  background-color: #eee;
  margin-bottom: 10px;
  width: 90px;
  overflow: hidden;
}

#my_div>div {
  float: left;
  margin: 20px 0 0 20px;
  height: 25px;
  width: 25px;
  background-color: #aaa;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.2/jquery.min.js"></script>

<div>MouseEnter: <span id="mouseenter">0</span></div>
<div>MouseOver: <span id="mouseover">0</span></div>

<div id="my_div">
  <div></div>
  <div></div>
  <div></div>
  <div></div>
</div>

Answer 6

Though they operate the same way, however, the mouseenter event only triggers when the mouse pointer enters the selected element. The mouseover event is triggered if a mouse pointer enters any child elements as well.