event.on()

event.on(typenames, [listener])

Equivalent to drag.on, but only applies to the current drag gesture. Before the drag gesture starts, a copy of the current drag event listeners is made. This copy is bound to the current drag gesture and modified by event.on. This is useful for temporary listeners that only receive events for the current drag gesture. For example, this start event listener registers temporary drag and end event listeners as closures:

function started() {
  var circle = d3.select(this).classed("dragging", true);

  d3.event.on("drag", dragged).on("end", ended);

  function dragged(d) {
    circle.raise().attr("cx", d.x = d3.event.x).attr("cy", d.y = d3.event.y);
  }

  function ended() {
    circle.classed("dragging", false);
  }
}