Why can I not retrieve CSS background property of DOM element

Question

I am trying to set the css background property of an element to a variable.

But when I log my var. to the console, it is an empty string.

Can anyone see what I

Answer 1

background is a shorthand property. From http://api.jquery.com/css/:

Retrieval of shorthand CSS properties (e.g., margin, background, border), although functional with some browsers, is not guaranteed.

You may need to check background-color, background-image, etc.