jQuery - how to check if an element exists?

Question

I know that you can test for width() or height() but what if the element's display property is set to none? What other value is there to check to make sure the element exists?

For reference, an element "exists" even when it's set to display: none. The distinction is particularly important for form controls; they'll be submitted whether they're visible or not. — cHao
– cHao, Commented Mar 13, 2011 at 23:08
sorry, I was a super dumbass, I mixed up width() and length thinking they're the same. width() returns 0 or false (I don't know) when dislpay is none, length always works. — A-OK
– A-OK, Commented Mar 14, 2011 at 0:01
possible duplicate of Is there an "exists" function for jQuery? — SpYk3HH
– SpYk3HH, Commented Oct 3, 2013 at 14:17

Subin Chalil · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-12 07:24:47Z

154

You can use length to see if your selector matched anything.

if ($('#MyId').length) {
    // do your stuff
}

edited Feb 12, 2016 at 7:24

Subin Chalil

3,7082 gold badges31 silver badges44 bronze badges

answered Mar 13, 2011 at 23:14

Bjarki Heiðar

3,1456 gold badges29 silver badges41 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Hussein Over a year ago

You don't need > 0 as shown in my example below. $('#MyId').length alone will do it.

Hussein · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-13 23:26:24Z

15

Assuming you are trying to find if a div exists

$('div').length ? alert('div found') : alert('Div not found')

Check working example at http://jsfiddle.net/Qr86J/1/

answered Mar 13, 2011 at 23:26

Hussein

42.9k25 gold badges115 silver badges143 bronze badges

1 Comment

contactmatt Over a year ago

Ehhh, it'd be clearer to use .length > 0 , rather than the implicit "truthy" check.

Steve Wellens · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-13 22:59:22Z

2

You can use the visible selector:

http://api.jquery.com/visible-selector/

answered Mar 13, 2011 at 22:59

Steve Wellens

20.6k2 gold badges31 silver badges70 bronze badges

Comments

Hogan · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-13 22:59:33Z

2

jQuery should be able to find even hidden elements. It also has the :visible and :hidden selectors to find both visible and hidden elements.

Does this help? Not sure without more info.

answered Mar 13, 2011 at 22:59

Hogan

70.7k10 gold badges83 silver badges119 bronze badges

Comments

Sebastian · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-04 19:33:32Z

2

if ($("#MyId").length) { ... write some code here ...}

This from will automatically check for the presence of the element and will return true if an element exists.

edited May 4, 2014 at 19:33

Sebastian

6,5136 gold badges36 silver badges49 bronze badges

answered May 4, 2014 at 19:08

Manal Mohamed

336 bronze badges

Comments

cn0047 · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-15 07:26:17Z

0

I use this:

if ($('.div1').size() || $('.div2').size()) {
    console.log('ok');
}

answered Jan 15, 2015 at 7:26

cn0047

17.2k7 gold badges61 silver badges75 bronze badges

Comments

Imagerie Numérique · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-27 11:21:59Z

-3

Mostly, I prefer to use this syntax :

if ($('#MyId')!= null) {
    // dostuff
}

Even if this code is not commented, the functionality is obvious.

answered Oct 27, 2015 at 11:21

Imagerie Numérique

32 bronze badges

2 Comments

Alsan Over a year ago

This will always retun true.

Imagerie Numérique Over a year ago

Oh my... That's true... Thanks for the notice ! Hum it's weird I ain't got any problems with that... I think I gotta spend some time to correct this on my JS Dev...

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

jQuery - how to check if an element exists?

7 Answers 7

1 Comment

Check working example at http://jsfiddle.net/Qr86J/1/

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

7 Answers 7

1 Comment

Check working example at http://jsfiddle.net/Qr86J/1/

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related