jQuery - select a element by the "name" attribute

Question

I know you can do this with [name] but the problem is that my input name attribute contains square brackets [] inside :(

var thename = 'blah[blah][]'; // <- this value is dynamic
$("*[name='"+thename+"']").each()...

Is there any other method I could select this element by the name field?

I remember that this situation is messy and remember people saying to avoid it — qwertymk
– qwertymk, Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 4:19
possible duplicate of jQuery selector for inputs with square brackets in the name attribute — Phrogz
– Phrogz, Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 4:19
You might as well add a class on the element. It would be faster to evaluate. — Christian Joudrey
– Christian Joudrey, Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 4:20
For future reference (this is intended to be helpful, not snarky): If you had included a more rigorous and exact summary of your question in the title, you very likely would have seen the exact duplicate question listed. This would have saved you the time of even writing your question, and jumped straight to the answer. — Phrogz
– Phrogz, Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 4:21
BTW, did you try this? My tests show that it just works, quoted or not, with the latest version of jQuery. — Phrogz
– Phrogz, Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 4:24

Community · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-07 17:43:08Z

2

You have to escape them, you can do this with a regex replace

var thename = 'blah[blah][]'; // <- this value is dynamic
$("*[name='"+thename.replace(/\[/g, '\\\\[').replace(/\]/g, '\\\\]')+"']").each()...

Or to make a function

function esc(a) { return a.replace(/\[/g, '\\\\[').replace(/\]/g, '\\\\]'); }
var thename = 'blah[blah][]'; // <- this value is dynamic
$("*[name='"+esc(thename)+"']").each()...

edited Jun 7, 2011 at 17:43

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answered Jan 17, 2011 at 4:21

qwertymk

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3 Comments

Reigel Gallarde Over a year ago

you have to use double backslash.. :)

qwertymk Over a year ago

Thanks just wanted to keep you on your toes

Alex Over a year ago

tx, but I just discovered that the problem wasn't [], it was a bad (:not) selector that I added after :)

Reigel Gallarde · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-17 04:20:16Z

1

If you wish to use any of the meta-characters 
( such as !"#$%&'()*+,./:;?@[\]^`{|}~ ) as a 
literal part of a name, you must escape the 
character with two backslashes: \\. 
For example, if you have an an element with 
id="foo.bar", you can use the selector $("#foo\\.bar").

quoted from http://api.jquery.com/category/selectors/

answered Jan 17, 2011 at 4:20

Reigel Gallarde

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3 Comments

Alex Over a year ago

tx. is there a function that can automatically escape a string? because that attribute is retrieved dynamically in my case.

Reigel Gallarde Over a year ago

@Alex, well, regex is the best approach... look at qwertymk's answer

Phrogz Over a year ago

Instead of racing to the answer, let's race to close duplicate questions and help keep the clutter to a minimum :p

PleaseStand · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-17 04:20:45Z

1

First try using double quotes within the attribute selector:

$('*[name="'+thename+'"]').each()...

If that doesn't work, you can use the .filter() method, taking advantage of direct DOM access:

$('input').filter(function() {
    return this.name == thename;
})...

answered Jan 17, 2011 at 4:20

PleaseStand

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