Does this code need to be in a document.ready?

Question

The document.ready is used to execute code after the DOM is fully loaded. This can be used to attach event handlers to elements on the page e.g

Answer 1

If you are binding to the document itself, you don't need to wait until it is ready. There shouldn't be any downsides to not wrapping it in document.ready in this case.

document.ready gets fired when the DOMReady event is triggered by the browser, or when a specific test is successful for versions of browsers that don't support the DOMReady event.

Additional information. (5/22/12)

Most modern browsers implement the DOMContentLoaded event which fires when all elements defined on the document are ready to be manipulated by javascript. Other browsers either rely on a setTimeout loop that continuously checks the readystate of the document or binds directly to the onreadystatechanged method of the document (taken from jquery core). The document itself is ready to be manipulated before javascript is ever executed, therefore you never need to wait when binding directly to the document.

The only gotcha here is that if the code interacts with elements other than the document, there is a chance that the event could be triggered on the document before those elements exist. It is very unlikely for that to happen, but it can happen. If that is something that can happen with your code, then it makes sense to place it inside of $(document).ready() to prevent that scenario. Your sample doesn't warrant being placed inside of $(document).ready().