How can I get the ID of an element using jQuery?

Question

Why doesn\'

Answer 1

Maybe useful for others that find this thread. The code below will only work if you already use jQuery. The function returns always an identifier. If the element doesn't have an identifier the function generates the identifier and append this to the element.

var generatedIdCounter = 0;

$.fn.id = function() {
    var identifier = this.attr('id');

    if(!identifier) {
        generatedIdCounter++;
        identifier = 'isGenerated_' + generatedIdCounter;

        this.attr('id', identifier);
    }

    return identifier;
}

How to use:

$('.classname').id();

$('#elementId').id();