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When in JS you need to identify element by array order?

Ok so I finally have a code example to show this!
if ($('#Snowsports-row')[0].classList.contains("hidden") == false) {
$('#snowsports-only').removeClass("hidden")
}
The code works ONLY as written above, i.e., if the [0] were moved to the second line and removed from the first line, or if it were present/absent in both lines, it would fail.
I understand the output difference...
$('#Snowsports-row')
=> [<div>...]
$('#Snowsports-row')[0]
=> <div>...
...but I'm not understanding under what circumstances you're OK to get an array of element(s) and in which you need to tease out the exact element.
THANKS FOR ALL ANSWERS! Very clearly helped me to figure out that the problem may have been confusing JS/jQuery methods. Final version:
if ($('#Snowsports-row').hasClass("hidden") == false) {
$('#snowsports-only').removeClass("hidden")
}

The .classList method is not widely supported (not in MSIE 9.0 for example) so it's not portable, although where it exists it's fast.
Since every ID in a document is supposed to be unique, and since calling removeClass for a class that isn't present is harmless, just replace your entire call with:
$('#Snowsports-row').removeClass('hidden')
Or better yet, if that class means what I think it does, use .hide() and let jQuery do its job for you, potentially animation the transition in the process.
Alternatively, if you actually wanted to stick with using DOM and classList, you should use the .remove() method that classList already supports:
document.getElementById('#Snowsports-row').classList.remove('hidden')
although there's a minor disadvantage in that this code will crash if that element isn't found (since .getElementById will return null) whereas jQuery silently ignores calls made on empty selectors.
As for the meta-question - you use [n] if you want to access the single DOM element at position n within the jQuery object, as you've done when you use .classList.
You use .eq(n) to obtain a jQuery object representing that DOM element, e.g. if you want to apply jQuery methods to that (single) element.
If there's only a single element, or you want the jQuery method to apply to every matching element, just call the method directly on the selector, as I've done above.

First off, by using jQuery for what it's good at, you can replace this:
if ($('#Snowsports-row')[0].classList.contains("hidden") == false) {
$('#snowsports-only').removeClass("hidden")
}
with this:
$('#Snowsports-row').removeClass("hidden");
Your first block of code does the following:
With $('#Snowsports-row'), make a jQuery object that contains all DOM elements that match the select '#Snowsports-row'.
Then reach into the jQuery object with [0] and get the first DOM object in that jQuery object.
Then, use a property/method on that DOM element to determine if a class exists on that DOM element with your .classList.contains("hidden") reference.
Then, if you find that class, remove it.
A jQuery object contains inside it an array of DOM elements. If you call a method on the jQuery object itself like:
$('.tableRows').html("hello");
Then, you are asking jQuery to operate on ALL the DOM elements inside the jQuery object. You must use jQuery methods, not DOM methods.
If, on the other hand, you want to use a method such as .classList.contains(), that is only a method on an actual DOM element. That isn't a jQuery method. So, you have to reach inside of the jQuery object to get a specific DOM element out of it. That's what the [0] does. It reaches into the jQuery object and gets the first DOM element from its internal data structure. Once you have that DOM element, you can then use any DOM element methods on that DOM object.
FYI, if you ever want to get just the first DOM element from a jQuery object, but want the result to be a jQuery object, not just a DOM element, instead of [0], you can use .eq(0) like ths:
$('#Snowsports-row').eq(0).removeClass("hidden");
Now, in this specific case, this is never necessary because $('#Snowsports-row') cannot ever contain more than one DOM element because internally jQuery will only return the first matching DOM element when you are searching for a ID value (since there's never supposed to be more than one matching element with the same ID).
Just keep in mind that DOM element and a jQuery object are completely different types of objects with different methods on them. What makes it slightly confusing is that a jQuery object contains an internal list of DOM elements. But, if the object you are operating on is a jQuery object, then you can only call jQuery methods on it. If you reach into the jQuery object and pull out a DOM element, then you can only call DOM methods on it.

First of all, ids must be unique, so if you have more than one #Snowsports-only elements you can experience problems.
In your question, you are mixing jQuery code with pure Javascript code.
This:
if ($('#Snowsports-row')[0].classList.contains("hidden") {
...
}
Means that you get the first instance of #Snowsports-row (remember that is better if there is only one element with this id), but you get the DOM object (pure javascript) with the jQuery selector. You can do the same thing in jQuery like this:
$('#Snowsports-row').hasClass("hidden")
See more:
https://api.jquery.com/hasclass/
https://developer.mozilla.org/es/docs/Web/API/Element/classList

Sure, because you are operating over a list. Now, you're kind of mistaking the jQuery/javascript code. If you would like to use the same line twice you can basically drop jQuery altogether and write something like this:
var el = document.getElementById('Snowsports-row');
if (el.classList.contains('hidden')){
el.classList.remove('hidden');
}

In the first line you're selecting one specific DOM element, whereas in the second line you are selecting ALL elements in the DOM that fit that selector and removing the "hidden" class from all of them. Basically checking whether the element has a class can only be performed over an element (that's why you need to select the index, specifying a given element), but jQuery allows you to remove the class of every element inside a list (hence your second line)

Use jQuery's .eq() function. So:
var el = $('#Snowsports-row').eq(0);
if (el.hasClass("hidden")) {
$(el.removeClass("hidden")
}
There's also no harm in calling removeClass on an element that might not have that class... so:
$('#Snowsports-row').eq(0).removeClass('hidden');

Find elements using part of ID

I have, the div's where id looks like this_div_id_NUMBER, all div's has the different NUMBER part. How I find all div's just using this_div_id part of id ?

you can use querySelectorAll to hit partial attribs, including ID:
document.querySelectorAll("[id^='this_div_id']")
the ^ next to the equal sign indicates "starts with", you can use * instead, but it's prone to false-positives.
you also want to make sure to use quotes (or apos) around the comapare value in attrib selectors for maximum compatibility on querySelectorAll; in jQuery and evergreen browsers it doesn't matter, but in vanilla for old browsers it does matter.
EDIT: late breaking requirement needs a more specific selector:
document.querySelectorAll("[id^='this_div_id']:not([id$='_test_field'])");
the not() segment prevents anything ending with "_test_field" from matching.
proof of concept / demo: http://pagedemos.com/partialmatch/

querySelectorAll
querySelectorAll takes CSS selectors and returns a HTMLNodeList (a kind of array) of all the elements matching that css selector.
The css selector ^ (starts with) can be used for your purpose. Learn more about it in this article.
For your case, it would be document.querySelectorAll("[id^='this_div_id']");
Note that querySelectorAll doesn't return a live node list. That means, any changes to the dom would not be updated live in the return value of the function.
Another method would to assign all your elements a specific class and then you can use getElementsByClassName (which is much faster than querySelector).
var divs = document.getElementsByClassName("divClass");

Try this selector:
[id^="this_div_id_"]
Pure JavaScript: (reference)
document.querySelectorAll('[id^="this_div_id_"]')
jQuery: (reference)
$('[id^="this_div_id_"]')
CSS: (reference)
[id^="this_div_id_"] {
/* do your stuff */
}
Why is this working?
With the [] in the selector, you can select attributes. Use '=' to match exactly the value or use the '^=' to check if the value starts with. Read more about this here.

Using attribute selectors:
div[id^="this_div_id"]

It is better to use classes.
But there is one solution that you need (assuming you use jQuery):
$("*[id^='this_div_id']")

Just using attribute selector like below:
$("[id^='this_div_id_']")

Strange ie behaviour with jquery inArray

Hello this seems to be working on IE8 :
var clsName = link.parents("div.fixed_column").attr("class").split(" ");
if($.inArray("column_one", clsName)
While this one reports error (Object expected errror in jquery).
var clsName = link.parents("div.fixed_column").attr("class");
What is the right way to do this? I thought purpose of inArray was that jquery will handle cross browser issues.

Unfortunately, this is indirectly answering your question, but... You seem to be looking to detect if an element has a class, and since you're already using jQuery, just use the hasClass method - http://api.jquery.com/hasClass/
For your specific code, try:
if (link.parents("div.fixed_column").hasClass("column_one")) {
// It has the "column_one" class
}
The more immediate answer to your question is that link.parents("div.fixed_column").attr("class") returns a single string. When the jQuery selector (div.fixed_column) returns multiple elements, which is very possible when using classes, using jQuery methods that get information (like .attr, using one parameter...to "get" the value) return the first matched element's value only.
So say the selector matches 3 elements:
["<div id='div30' class='fixed_column div30_class'></div>",
"<div id='div2' class='fixed_column div2_class'></div>",
"<div id='div17' class='fixed_column div17_class'></div>"]
Then the value returned from .attr("class") will be: fixed_column div30_class because it's the first matched element.
I'm not sure, but I think you're expecting jQuery to return an array of all the matched elements' values, which it just doesn't. So that doesn't mean jQuery isn't handling cross-browser issues, it just means you need to look up what the method does/returns.
I could've sworn that jQuery 2.0 has options for doing what you want - directly from calling the getters (or something similar), but I can't find it anymore :( Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly. Anyways, you could easily use $.each and/or $.map to look at every matched element, but it depends on what you were really trying to do with it.

You can't read the attributes of multiple elements into an array with .attr("class"). But why don't you just target the desired class in the selector like this?
var cols = link.parents("div.fixed_column.column_one");
Then change your conditional to check for an empty set:
if(cols.length) { ...

can I use document.prototype.getElementById to get an element in another element, not in the whole document

I recently found on this javascript tip :
element_number = Array.prototype.indexOf.call(element_1, element_2);
It allows developers to use the indexOf method on an object wich is not an Array.
I would like to know if it is possible to use a similar syntax to call the getElementById method but not on the whole document (document.getElementById), just on an element like this :
my_div_2 = document.prototype.getElementById.call(div_1, "id_of_my_div_2");
The idea is that my document contains tabs and elements having the same id can be present several times in the document.
If it is not possible, did somebody write a function doing that :
Search in an element another element by id.

No, but you can accomplish what you want using querySelector instead.
my_div_2 = div_1.querySelector("#id_of_my_div_2");
Not supported in IE6/7.
Docs: MDN element.querySelector()
That said, duplicate IDs are invalid.
This technique is useful if the same script is used on different pages where the ID may or may not be in a particular container.

No. The getElementById method must be applied on objects of type Document, otherwise it would throw a WRONG_THIS_VALUE exception. You could try it with
myDiv1 = document.getElementById("div1");
myDiv2 = document.getElementById.call(myDiv1, "div2"); // no ".prototype"!

This makes no sense as only one element with a given id is possible in a document.
So the only right syntax would be
my_div_2 = document.getElementById("id_of_my_div_2");
Don't reuse an id in a document. You probably can achieve the desired result using classes instead of id.

Javascript - extract object ID from a Javascript object

So I am not sure if my title is clear enough. I essentially have a div saved as a Javascript object which looks like this: [div#field_30.checkbox_group]
The field_30 is the ID which I am trying to extract here. doing something like object.id is not working. Does anyone know how to get the ID?
Note: I saved the object like this: var object = $(".workspace .selected"); which grabs the currently selected div inside the object called workspace. Sorry is this is a rookie mistake, I just can't seem to find anything anywhere. Thanks for the help...

var object = $(".workspace .selected"); will return a jQuery wrapped element that has jQuery properties and methods rather than element properties and methods. This means that any of
object[0].id
object.prop("id")
object.attr("id")
should work, but the 1st option should be the best performance-wise. It gets the id property of the the 1st element contained by the jQuery object, which is your div.

Your object is in fact a jQuery object, not a dom object.
To use the dom object use,
object[0].id
Or using, jquery, (Since it is already there)
object.prop('id');

You can use either $jquery_object.attr('id') or $jquery_object.eq(0).id
See this for exemple: http://jsfiddle.net/cquuT/

In this case it looks like object is the result of a jQuery select. To get to the actual DOM object you need to use [0]. Then you can access the id property
object[0].id

I don't see a complete answer here, so I'll provide my own.
If you're using jQuery selector $(), then you'll get jQuery-wrapped collection, not a single element.
(I assume now that you're using jQuery 1.5.2, the same as StackOverflow uses now.)
Universal solution to get ids of all elements returned by selector is:
.map(function(){ return this.id; })
Running $(".post-text").map(function(){ return this.id; }) on current page will return something like: ["", "", "", "", ""]
To get id of the first element returned by selector use:
.attr('id')
Running $("div").attr('id') on current page will return "notify-container".
Since jQuery 1.6 you can also use .prop('id') here.
If you know, that query will return only one element or you just want the first element matching given selector, then use .attr which is obviously a simpler solution.