jQuery - determine if input element is textbox or select list

ajberry picture ajberry · Feb 24, 2011 · Viewed 109.4k times · Source

How would I determine whether the element returned by an :input filter in jQuery is a textbox or select list?

I want to have a different behavior for each ( textbox returns text value, select returns both key and text)

Example setup:

<div id="InputBody">
<div class="box">
    <span id="StartDate">
        <input type="text" id="control1">
    </span>
    <span id="Result">
        <input type="text" id="control2">
    </span>
    <span id="SelectList">
        <select>
            <option value="1">Option 1</option>
            <option value="2">Option 2</option>
            <option value="3">Option 3</option>
        </select>
    </span>
</div>
<div class="box">
    <span id="StartDate">
        <input type="text" id="control1">
    </span>
    <span id="Result">
        <input type="text" id="control2">
    </span>
    <span id="SelectList">
        <select>
            <option value="1">Option 1</option>
            <option value="2">Option 2</option>
            <option value="3">Option 3</option>
        </select>
    </span>
</div>

and then the script:

$('#InputBody')
    // find all div containers with class = "box"
    .find('.box')
    .each(function () {
        console.log("child: " + this.id);

        // find all spans within the div who have an id attribute set (represents controls we want to capture)
        $(this).find('span[id]')
        .each(function () {
            console.log("span: " + this.id);

            var ctrl = $(this).find(':input:visible:first');

            console.log(this.id + " = " + ctrl.val());
            console.log(this.id + " SelectedText = " + ctrl.find(':selected').text());

        });

Answer

user113716 picture user113716 · Feb 24, 2011

You could do this:

if( ctrl[0].nodeName.toLowerCase() === 'input' ) {
    // it was an input
}

or this, which is slower, but shorter and cleaner:

if( ctrl.is('input') ) {
    // it was an input
}

If you want to be more specific, you can test the type:

if( ctrl.is('input:text') ) {
    // it was an input
}