How do you check if a selector matches something in jQuery? [duplicate]

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• Is there an “exists” function for jQuery? 40 answers

In Mootools, I'd just run if ($('target')) { ... }. Does if ($('#target')) { ... } in jQuery work the same way?

Answer 1

As the other commenters are suggesting the most efficient way to do it seems to be:

if ($(selector).length ) {
    // Do something
}

If you absolutely must have an exists() function - which will be slower- you can do:

jQuery.fn.exists = function(){return this.length>0;}

Then in your code you can use

if ($(selector).exists()) {
    // Do something
}

As answered here

Answer 2

no, jquery always returns a jquery object regardless if a selector was matched or not. You need to use .length

if ( $('#someDiv').length ){

}

Answer 3

if you used:

jQuery.fn.exists = function(){return ($(this).length > 0);}
if ($(selector).exists()) { }

you would imply that chaining was possible when it is not.

This would be better

jQuery.exists = function(selector) {return ($(selector).length > 0);}
if ($.exists(selector)) { }

Answer 4

I think most of the people replying here didn't quite understand the question, or else I might be mistaken.

The question is "how to check whether or not a selector exists in jQuery."

Most people have taken this for "how to check whether an element exists in the DOM using jQuery." Hardly interchangeable.

jQuery allows you to create custom selectors, but see here what happens when you try to use on e before initializing it;

$(':YEAH');
"Syntax error, unrecognized expression: YEAH"

After running into this, I realized it was simply a matter of checking

if ($.expr[':']['YEAH']) {
    // Query for your :YEAH selector with ease of mind.
}

Cheers.

Answer 5

Yet another way:

$('#elem').each(function(){
  // do stuff
});

Answer 6

if ($('#elem')[0]) {
  // do stuff
}

Answer 7

Alternatively:

if( jQuery('#elem').get(0) ) {}

Answer 8

I prefer the

    if (jQuery("#anyElement").is("*")){...}

Which basically checks if this elements is a kind of "*" (any element). Just a cleaner syntax and the "is" makes more sense inside an "if"

Answer 9

jQuery.fn.exists = function(selector, callback) {
    var $this = $(this);
    $this.each(function() {
        callback.call(this, ($(this).find(selector).length > 0));
    });
};

Answer 10

For me .exists doesn't work, so I use the index :

if ($("#elem").index() ! = -1) {}

Answer 11

firstly create a function:

$.fn.is_exists = function(){ return document.getElementById(selector) }

then

if($(selector).is_exists()){ ... }