Simplifying jQuery events

Question

I wrote these functions to handle data when a particular cell of my table is clicked. I have 6 functions that handle the data for the event but each are the same, they just with a different ID. Here is my code:

    //COMMENT HANDLING
    $("#mondayCommentLink").click(function () {
        var mondayhtmls = $("#mondayComment");
        var input = $("<input type='text' id='mondayCommentText' name='mondayCommentText' size='10' />");
        input.val(data.days[0].comment);
        mondayhtmls.html(input);
    });

    $("#tuesdayCommentLink").click(function () {
        var tuesdayhtmls = $("#tuesdayComment");
        var inputt = $("<input type='text' id='tuesdayCommentText' name='tuesdayCommentText' size='10' />");
        inputt.val(data.days[1].comment);
        tuesdayhtmls.html(inputt);
    });

    $("#wednesdayCommentLink").click(function () {
        var htmls = $("#wednesdayComment");
        var input = $("<input type='text' id='wednesdayCommentText' name='wednesdayCommentText' size='10' />");
        input.val(data.days[2].comment);
        htmls.html(input);
    });

    $("#thursdayCommentLink").click(function () {
        var htmls = $("#thursdayComment");
        var input = $("<input type='text' id='thursdayCommentText' name='thursdayCommentText' size='10' />");
        input.val(data.days[3].comment);
        htmls.html(input);
    });

    $("#fridayCommentLink").click(function () {
        var htmls = $("#fridayComment");
        var input = $("<input type='text' id='fridayCommentText' name='fridayCommentText' size='10' />");
        input.val(data.days[4].comment);
        htmls.html(input);
    });

    $("#saturdayCommentLink").click(function () {
        var htmls = $("#saturdayComment");
        var input = $("<input type='text' id='saturdayCommentText' name='saturdayCommentText' size='10' />");
        input.val(data.days[5].comment);
        htmls.html(input);
    }); 

Is there a way I can simply this code or make it more elegant than having 6 separate functions handling each specific cell event?

Answer 1

var dayNums = {"monday": 0, "tuesday": 1, "wednesday": 2, "thursday": 3, "friday": 4, "saturday": 5};
$("#mondayCommentLink, #tuesdayCommentLink, #wednesdayCommentLink, #thursdayCommentLink, #fridayCommentLink, #saturdayCommentLink").click(function () {
    var day = $(this).attr("id").replace(/CommentLink$/, "");
    var htmls = $("#" + day + "Comment");
    var input = $("<input type='text' id='" + day + "CommentText' name='" + day + "CommentText' size='10' />");
    input.val(data.days[dayNums[day]].comment);
    htmls.html(input);
});

Answer 2

Add the attribute data-dow="2" and data-day="wednesday" to each comment link, remove the id="wednesdayCommentLink" and add class="commentLink".

<a class="wednesdayCommentLink">link</a>

becomes

<a class="commentLink" data-dow="2" data-day="wednesday">link</a>

Do the same for #wednesdayComment (.comment) and #wednesdayCommentText (.commentText), adding the data- attributes for each.

Then, use this JavaScript:

$(".commentLink").click(function () {
    var dow = $(this).attr('data-dow');
    var day = $(this).attr('data-day');

    var input = $('<input type="text" class="commentText" data-dow="'+dow+'" data-day="'+day+'" name="'+day+'CommentText" size="10" />');
    input.val(data.days[dow].comment);

    $('.comment[data-dow="'+dow+'"]').html(input);
});

Answer 3

If each of the links have a common class (or you can give them one), then you can use it as the selector. Additionally, add something like data-day="1" to the tag, with the number corresponding to the position (0 for monday, 1 for tuesday...).

Then, start your function with:

var day = this.id.match(/(\w+)CommentLink/)[1],
    comment = data.dats[this.getAttribute("data-day")].comment;

Then you can do things like $("#"+day+"Comment"), id='"+day+"CommentText' and so on.

Answer 4

I'm sure there's lot that can be done. But when refactoring I recommend starting out small. So first just move the common code of the event handler into a seperate function:

var handler = function(day,commentId,commentTextId) {
  return function () {
    var input = $("<input type='text' id='"+commentTextId+"' name='"+commentTextId+"' size='10' />");
    input.val(day.comment);
    $('#'+commentId).html(input);
  };
};

Then you can setup your events like so:

$("#mondayCommentLink").click(handler(data.days[0],"mondayComment","mondayCommentText"));
$("#tuesdayCommentLink").click(handler(data.days[1],"tuesdayComment","tuesdayCommentText"));
// and so on

Answer 5

What I would do is to create a class for the commentLinks so you are able to write only once the click event for each element, and I wouldn't remove the id to do something like:

jQuery('.commentLink').click(function(){
  var elementId = jQuery(this).attr('id');
  var sectionName = elementId.substring(0, elementId.lastIndexOf('Link'));
  var htmls = jQuery('#' + sectionName);
  var input = jQuery("<input type='text' id='" + sectionName + "Text' name='" + sectionName + "Text' size='10' />");
  htmls.html(input);
});

And that's all.