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 just need to know if the mouse is over an element at a given moment.

I'd like to do something like this, if only there was an "IsMouseOver" function:

function hideTip(oi) {
    setTimeout(function() { if (!IsMouseOver(oi)) $(oi).fadeOut(); }, 100);
}

Answer 1

Set a timeout on the mouseout to fadeout and store the return value to data in the object. Then onmouseover, cancel the timeout if there is a value in the data.

Remove the data on callback of the fadeout.

It is actually less expensive to use mouseenter/mouseleave because they do not fire for the menu when children mouseover/mouseout fire.