CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptjquery
Math chiller
Math chiller

Reputation: 4167

why doesnt this jquery work?

in my program i have a jquery line

$( '#monsters[0]').animate( { left: "+=25" },500);

i have a array called monsters, but i dont see why that would make a difference, this code does work when i change the id to a different images id, and i put ('img') instead it even works on the image with the id monsters[0] i am also sure this is the images id. however i run the above code and nothing happens to the image, no error appears in the console either, can anyone explain this?

link here, if that helps at all.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 121

Answers (3)

Denys Séguret
Denys Séguret

Reputation: 382150

'#monsters[0]' can't be parsed by jQuery as meaning the element has an id "monsters[0]". It's parsed as a query for an element having as id monsters and an attribute 0.

You may do

$(document.getElementById('monsters[0]')).animate( { left: "+=25" },500);

If you use it more than once you can build yourself a small utility :

function $$(id) { return $(document.getElementById(id)) }

so that you only have to do 

$$('monsters[0]').animate( { left: "+=25" },500);

But you should probably avoid those id, they would for example bring you the same problem in CSS. Here it looks like a class or a data attribute would make more sense.

Comment :

There's of course the other solution of dynamically escaping the [ and ] characters (and later on the other ones that could arise). Don't do it : this makes the code much more complex, hides the fact that it works only for certain forms of id, and is much heavier : you build a string that jQuery will parse to understand you need the id and then jQuery will call document.getElementById. Direcly use document.getElementById to be clearer, more reliable and more efficient.

Upvotes: 2

Priya Ranjan Singh
Priya Ranjan Singh

Reputation: 1567

$( '#monsters').animate( { left: "+=25" },500);

will do.

$( '#monsters') gives away a jQuery wrapped object.

Upvotes: -4

Quentin
Quentin

Reputation: 943564

The characters [ and ] have special meaning in a selector (they indicate an attribute selector). If you want to use them as part of an ID selector (or any other kind of selector) you have to escape them with a \.

Note that since you are expressing your selector as a string literal, you have to escape the escape sequences too.

'#monsters\\[0\\]'

Upvotes: 5

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