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Question

How to select all anchor tags with specific text

Answer 1

+9 A:

$("a.myclass:contains('My Text')")

David Morton 2010-03-15 12:16:58

Thanks David. How do I do an exact match comparison rather than contains. I only want elements that match exactly.

geoff 2010-03-15 12:22:27

I'd only add distinction between links and bookmarks: `$('a.myclass[href]:contains("My Text")')`

Marko Dumic 2010-03-15 12:23:39

@geoff: There's no built-in way to get an exact match. You can either use the .each function to iterate through them all, or you can write your own jQuery selector. Eric Martin has written a good one for exact match. You can find it here: http://www.ericmmartin.com/creating-a-custom-jquery-selector/

David Morton 2010-03-15 12:31:50

@David: Just what I needed. Thank you.

geoff 2010-03-15 12:44:05

Answer 2

+1 A:

If you are only bothered if the anchor's text contains a particular string, go with @Dave Morton's solution. If, however, you want to exactly match a particular string, I would suggest something like this:

$.fn.textEquals = function(txt) {
    return $(this).text() == txt;
}

$(document).ready(function() {
    console.log($("a").textEquals("Hello"));
    console.log($("a").textEquals("Hefllo"))
});

<a href="blah">Hello</a>

Slightly improved version (with a second trim parameter):

$.fn.textEquals = function(txt,trim) {
    var text = (trim) ? $.trim($(this).text()) : $(this).text();
    return text == txt;
}

$(document).ready(function() {
    console.log($("a.myclass").textEquals("Hello")); // true
    console.log($("a.anotherClass").textEquals("Foo", true)); // true
    console.log($("a.anotherClass").textEquals("Foo")); // false
});

<a class="myclass" href="blah">Hello</a>
<a class="anotherClass" href="blah">   Foo</a>

karim79 2010-03-15 12:34:51

Answer 3

+1 A:

You could create a custom selector similar to :contains for exact matches:

$.expr[':'].containsexactly = function(obj, index, meta, stack) 
{  
    return $(obj).text() === meta[3];
}; 

var myAs = $("a.myclass:containsexactly('My Text')");

Andy E 2010-03-15 12:45:01

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How to select all anchor tags with specific text

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