ID/Class Selector

Question

Hi. I have some kind of problem with jQuery selectors.

Let's say i want to select $('#elementID') but the elementID is a variable.

There is any other possiblity to do this other way than var variable = elementID; $('#'+variable) ? I mean without specifying the # anywhere else?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The following is probably the fastest and the cleanest solution:

$(document.getElementById(elementID))

Appending your variable to "#" would work of course, but it's inherently slower.

Answer 2

Not sure what you mean, but:

var variable = '#' + elementID;

$(variable)...

Answer 3

Not really, no. You need "#" as a selector to select an ID. No reason to not use the ID selector. Or you could write your own function, something like:

$.id = function(id)
{
    return $("#" + id);
}

var elementID = "elementID";
$.id(elementID).text();

That would return an element with the ID of "elementID" without having to use the "#". Kind of pointless though.

Answer 4

If elementID is a variable ala var elementID = '#someId', I would suggest simply (although I didn't try it ):

$(elementID)

jQuery/JavaScript should dereference this variable as a string value and wrap the ID correctly for further operations...

Answer 5

I use $('#'+variable) all the time.