Element is not defined jQuery $(element).remove()

Question

Hello SO:

I have this javascript that adds a form field, along with a link to remove that field:

var fieldCount = 0;
function addField() {
    var name = 'file' + fieldCount;
    var row = 'row' + fieldCount;
    var str = '<p id="' + row + '"><label for="' + name + '">File to upload: <input type="file" name="' + name + '" id="' + name + '" />(100MB max size) <a onclick="removeRow(' + row + '); return false;">[-]</a></label></p>';
    fieldCount++;
    $("#fields").append(str);
};
function removeRow(id) {
    $(id).remove();
};

Here is the markup:

<form id="ajaxUploadForm" action="<%= Url.Action("AjaxUpload", "Upload")%>" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
    <fieldset id="uploadFields">
        <legend>Upload a file</legend>
        <div id="fields"></div>
        <input id="ajaxUploadButton" type="submit" value="Submit" />            
    </fieldset>
    <a onclick="addField(); return false;" id="add">Add</a>
    <div id="resultBox">
        <p id="status" style="margin:10px;"></p>
    </div>
</form>

The addFields works as expected, but when I click the remove link firebug tells me that "row#" is not defined, where # is any number of the added fields.

Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

You need to have quotes around it, since it's a string. You also need the "#" to make it into a selector:

var str = '... <a onclick="removeRow(\'#' + row + '\'); return false;">...';

A better way would be to assign the onclick as a function (not sure of the jQuery way to do this but in plain Javascript):

var a = document.createElement('a');
a.onclick = (function(row)
{
    return function()
    {
        removeRow(row);
        return false;
    };
})();

Answer 2

You need to pass a valid selector expression for an ID selector (#ID), either in the removeRow call (also note the quotes surrounding the ID selector):

'<a onclick="removeRow(\'#' + row + '\'); return false;">'

Or in the removeRow function itself:

function removeRow(id) {
    $("#" + id).remove();
};

Answer 3

You are passing in the string value of "row12", but the selector should be:

$('#'+row').remove()

The # specifies that you are looking for an ID. I agree with what I think one of the other answers was about to say, you should just use the onclick events' natural "this" keyword instead:

<p onclick="remove(this)">something</p>

function remove(what) {
 $(what).remove()
}

Or, maybe just forget the whole thing all together and switch to a behavior for those kinds of rows:

$('.removableRow').live('click', function() {$(this).remove()});

Then you just specify that the row is removable, and never have to worry about binding events at all:

<p><a class="removableRow" href="#">Remove</a></p>