confusion over simple variable declaration jQuery "$variable" vs javascript "var"

When storing a jQuery selection in a variable, it's common practice to add a $ before the variable name like this:

var $banner = $('#banner');

It's not necessary to include the dollar sign — var banner = $('#banner') would work just as well. However, the dollar sign reminds you that the variable holds a jQuery selection and not just any value like a number or a string.

@mgiuca is entirely right about Javascript variables - the '$' that precedes them is just a naming convention that most use to identify jQuery objects. I add this because you say

because i tried storing jQuery object in non-jQuery variable

but this is wrong. $txtField is a string that you are using to select an object. If you want to store the object itself you should do $txtField = $(#searchPanel form input.ghText) and then use it thusly $txtField.val().

Having said that your code works fine for me unaltered. I've set up a demo which works on Chrome - is this a cut down version of you code?

You seem to be confused about JavaScript variables. There is no such thing as "jQuery variables" and "non-jQuery variables". Some specific cases:

• A variable declared with var is different to a variable without. "var x" is a local variable, so it will not share a value with other functions which also have a variable called "x". This is almost always a good thing, so you should almost always declare variables with "var".
• The $ in jQuery is sort of special. It isn't that special; it's just that jQuery has declared a variable called "$" which does some fancy operations.
• There is nothing special about variables that begin with "$". In other words, "$x" is just a variable name. It is a different variable to "x", and it isn't a "jQuery variable". It's just a JavaScript variable called "$x". (This is different from PHP, where the $ is actually a special variable syntax.)

So you can just call it "value" instead of "$value".

Possibly the fact that you removed the "var" changed things by making it into a global variable.

As for "this", yes, that is a tricky aspect of JavaScript, and might be causing your problem. The value of "this" inside the inner 'focus' and 'blur' functions is likely to be different from the value of "this" outside. I'm not sure exactly what "this" refers to in an event handler, but it will not be the same object. So what you probably want to do is assign "this" to a variable in the outer function, and then refer to that variable on the inside in place of "this".