calling function on jquery selector

Question

Okay, normally I would consider myself an intermediate user of jquery, but this seems like a very noob issue that I'm not quite sure how to code.

I have one div that I want to run a function against. The only way I'm aware of how to do this is something like...

$("#divname").each(function(){
  dostuff();
});

This seems like a bit more work when I know there will only be one element. I tried this...

$("#divname", function(){ 
  console.log($(this));
});

... but it writes out the whole dom. I just want to run the function on this one element. How do I do that?

@JonathanSampson. LoL, My answer would have been exactly the same if there wasn't 30 chars answer limit... :) — gdoron
– gdoron, Commented Jun 7, 2012 at 14:55
@gdoron It's actually not the best approach. It prevents you from using doStuff as a callback later on in other jQuery iterations since you refer to a parameter rather than this. See my answer for details. — Sampson
– Sampson, Commented Jun 7, 2012 at 15:14
@JonathanSampson. It depends on what the OP wants do. He didn't mention what exactly does he want to do. — gdoron
– gdoron, Commented Jun 7, 2012 at 15:16
@gdoron He showed doStuff in a call to each, so I assume it's a function he wants to be able to run on many items, but also run explicitly on one item. — Sampson
– Sampson, Commented Jun 7, 2012 at 15:17
@JonathanSampson. I upvoted already as it was better than mine. But I do suggest the OP to give more context in his questions, knowing we are not sitting next to him or having crystal ball could help even more. :) And by the way, it looks like he accept my style answer and not yours... :) — gdoron
– gdoron, Commented Jun 7, 2012 at 15:19

Sampson · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-07 15:16:07Z

28

You should call the function, passing your element in as its object:

function doStuff() {
    alert( $(this).html() );
}

doStuff.call( $("#foo")[0] );

Due to the way we built and call doStuff, we can still use it as a callback on .each:

$(".bar").each( doStuff );

Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/jonathansampson/WuyJc/

edited Jun 7, 2012 at 15:16

answered Jun 7, 2012 at 14:55

Sampson

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thecodeparadox · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-07 14:59:03Z

21

If you maintain that each element in HTML DOM has unique id that means no two elements have same id, then $('#divname') always return a single element and $('#divname').each() will run one time. not more than one.

Now in your case you want something like

dosomething( $('#divname') );

For example:

function doSomething( el ) {
   el.append('<span>hello</span>');
}

 doSomething( $('#divname') );

DEMO

edited Jun 7, 2012 at 14:59

answered Jun 7, 2012 at 14:52

thecodeparadox

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