jQuery element variable doesn't seem to be accessible?

Question

So I get a set of form elements that I want to extract the values from, by using

var inputs = $("input.row_2");
inputs[0].val()

When I run this, I get told that val is not a valid method.

What am I doing wrong?

Should be an easy one..
Thanks!

Answer 1

inputs[0] returns you the DOM element, so inputs[0].value will have what you want.

You can also use inputs.eq(0).val() which will never complain that inputs[0] is undefined if there are no matches.

.eq() returns a jQuery object (not DOM) as opposed to .get() which is also what you will get from using [0]

Answer 2

A jQUery object behaves like an array of DOM elements.
Therefore, inputs[0] returns the raw DOM element, not a jQuery wrapper.
Since raw DOM elements do not have a val() method, you're getting an error.

To call jQuery methods on a specific element, you should call the eq() method, like this:

inputs.eq(0).val();

In your case, you can also simply get the value property from the raw DOM element, like this:

inputs[0].value

Note, however, that this will not behave like jQuery's val() for <select> elements.

Answer 3

$('input.row_2').first().val();