Uncaught Error: Syntax error, unrecognized expression: #

Question

I am trying to obtain a cell's text value from a flexigrid. However I keep getting that error.

This is my function for retrieving a specific cell's text(Flexigrid doesnt have "attr" it has "abbr" instead).

function getSelectedCopyDates() {
    var arr = new Array();
    debugger;
    //for every row that has a checked checkbox
    $("tr").has(".noteCheckBox:checked").each(function(i) {
        if ($(this.id) !== "checkAllNotes") {
            //push the value of column(FName, LName) into the array 
            arr.push($("#" + this.id + "> td[abbr='EventDate'] > div").text());
        }
    });
    return arr;
}

I only get that error when I click on "checkAllNotes"(main check box ). If I check a checkbox manually then everything works fine.

Here is my flexigrid layout:

$('#viewNotesGrid').flexigrid({
    url: url,
    dataType: 'json',
    method: 'get',
    colModel: [{
        display: '<input type="checkbox" class="noteCheckBox" id="checkAllNotes" />',
        name: 'checkBox',
        width: 20,
        sortable: false,
        align: 'center',
        process: showDescription
    }, {
        display: 'Date',
        name: 'EventDate',
        width: 80,
        sortable: true,
        align: 'center',
        process: showDescription
    },

Answer 1

1st problem is that $("tr").has(".noteCheckBox:checked") returns tr elements, not input checkboxes.

2nd problem: $(this.id) !== "value" will never work. You are creating jQuery object and comparing it with string. Should be this.id !== "value"

3rd problem: already explained in previous answer. If element doesn't seem to have id, then "#" + this.id + "> would result in "#>", and you actually want to compare id of special input field, not tr.

Making few assumptions here, but this might work:

function getSelectedCopyDates() {
var arr = new Array();

//for every row that has a checked checkbox
$("tr .noteCheckBox:checked").each(function (i) {
    if (this.id !== "checkAllNotes") {
        var tr = $(this).parents("tr")[0]; // going back to parent tr
        arr.push($(tr).find(" > td[abbr='EventDate'] > div").text());
    }
});
return arr;
}

Answer 2

I think you mean to use this.id == vs. $(this.id) ==. It also seems like the error may be because this.id is empty (jQuery will throw that error on $("#>"), but the error message also seems to include the >, so I'm not sure).