Does jQuery $(this) need to be cached

Question

I recently came accross some blog posts about jQuery performance (i.e. http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/javascript-ajax/10-ways-to-instantly-increase-your-jquery-performanc

Answer 1

Well, there's a performance cost to executing the function, running through the init logic and returning an object, albeit probably a very small performance cost, so in this particular case, the need to cache is probably not significant.

However, for the sake of code conformity, it is a good idea to cache objects that you use more than once as in other circumstances the performance difference can be significant, therefore getting into the habit is a good thing.