jQuery - Get element from array as jQuery element?

javascript jquery dom word-wrap
jan picture jan · Jul 3, 2013 · Viewed 31k times · Source

If I call

$(".myClass")

I get an array of elements. If I now want to get the first element as jquery element I would do something like this:

$($(".myClass").get(0))

So I wrap the DOM-Element, which I get from the array again with the jQuery operator. Is there a more elegant way to do this? Some get method, which returns a jQuery element for example?

Answer

nnnnnn picture nnnnnn · Jul 3, 2013

Use the eq() method:

$(".myClass").eq(0)

This returns a jQuery object, whereas .get() returns a DOM element.

.eq() lets you specify the index, but if you just want the first you can use .first(), or if you just want the last you can use (surprise!) .last().

"I get an array of elements."

No you don't, you get a jQuery object which is an array-like object, not an actual array.

If you plan to use jQuery much I suggest spending half an hour browsing through the list of all methods.

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