How do I check if the mouse is over an element in jQuery?

Question

Is there a quick & easy way to do this in jQuery that I\'m missing?

I don\'t want to use the mouseover event because I\'m already using it for something else. I

Answer 1

I combined ideas from this topic and came up with this, which is useful for showing/hiding a submenu:

$("#menu_item_a").mouseenter(function(){
   clearTimeout($(this).data('timeoutId'));
   $("#submenu_a").fadeIn("fast");
}).mouseleave(function(){
   var menu_item = $(this);

   var timeoutId = setTimeout(function(){
      if($('#submenu_a').is(':hover'))
      {
        clearTimeout(menu_item.data('timeoutId'));
      }
      else
      {
        $("#submenu_a").fadeOut("fast");
      }
   }, 650);

    menu_item.data('timeoutId', timeoutId); 
});

 $("#submenu_a").mouseleave(function(){
   $(this).fadeOut("fast");
 });

Seems to work for me. Hope this helps someone.

EDIT: Now realizing this approach is not working correctly in IE.