.get()

Categories: Miscellaneous > DOM Element Methods
Retrieve the DOM elements matched by the jQuery object.

Contents:

.get( index )Returns: Element

Description: Retrieve one of the DOM elements matched by the jQuery object.

The .get() method grants us access to the DOM nodes underlying each jQuery object. Consider a simple unordered list:

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  <ul>
    <li id="foo">foo</li>
    <li id="bar">bar</li>
  </ul>

With an index specified, .get(index) retrieves a single element:

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console.log( $( "li" ).get( 0 ) );

Since the index is zero-based, the first list item is returned:

<li id="foo">

Each jQuery object also masquerades as an array, so we can use the array dereferencing operator to get at the list item instead:

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console.log( $( "li" )[0] );

However, this syntax lacks some of the additional capabilities of .get(), such as specifying a negative index:

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console.log( $( "li" ).get(-1) );

A negative index is counted from the end of the matched set, so this example returns the last item in the list:

<li id="bar">

Example:

Display the tag name of the click element.

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <style>
    span { color:red; }
    div { background:yellow; }
    </style>
  <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <span>&nbsp;</span>
    <p>In this paragraph is an <span>important</span> section</p>
 
    <div><input type="text" /></div>
<script>
  $( "*", document.body).click(function( e ) {
    e.stopPropagation();
    var domEl = $( this ).get( 0 );
    $( "span:first" ).text( "Clicked on - " + domEl.nodeName );
  });
  </script>
 
</body>
</html>

Demo:

.get()Returns: Array

Description: Retrieve the DOM elements matched by the jQuery object.

  • version added: 1.0.get()

    • This method does not accept any arguments.

Consider a simple unordered list:

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  <ul>
    <li id="foo">foo</li>
    <li id="bar">bar</li>
  </ul>

Without a parameter, .get() returns an array of all of the elements:

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console.log( $( "li" ).get() );

All of the matched DOM nodes are returned by this call, contained in a standard array:

[<li id="foo">, <li id="bar">]

Example:

Select all divs in the document and return the DOM Elements as an Array; then use the built-in reverse() method to reverse that array.

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <style>
    span { color:red; }
    </style>
  <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
  Reversed - <span></span>
 
    <div>One</div>
    <div>Two</div>
    <div>Three</div>
<script>
  function disp(divs) {
    var a = [];
    for ( var i = 0; i < divs.length; i++) {
      a.push( divs[i].innerHTML );
    }
    $( "span" ).text( a.join(" ") );
  }
  disp( $( "div" ).get().reverse() );
  </script>
 
</body>
</html>

Demo: