Why use var that = this?

[Ramesh]

Pardon my ignorance but what is the reason behind the pattern of using 

var that = this;

in KenodUI? 

that is declared as a local variable so would it not always refer to this when a function on 
a widget is invoked? 

I must be missing something.

Thanks in Advance.

[Ramesh]

I think I figured it out. 

The method where we declare

var that = this;

itself could be a complext JS object (read function) with additional handlers. When such handlers are invoked, the context of "this" switches to whoever invokes the handler. However, we might still want to invoke other methods on the main container (for example, grid). This is where we can use "that" leveraging closures. 

Please correct if I am wrong.
Thx

[Petyo]

Hi Ramesh,

you have understood this pattern usage correctly - the var that = this is used as a reference to the original context in closures (most often, event handlers). 

Regards,
Petyo
Telerik