What does the “$” sign mean in jQuery or JavaScript? [duplicate]

Answer 1

Additional to the jQuery thing treated in the other answers there is another meaning in JavaScript - as prefix for the RegExp properties representing matches, for example:

"test".match( /t(e)st/ );
alert( RegExp.$1 );

will alert "e"

But also here it's not "magic" but simply part of the properties name

Answer 2

In jQuery, the $ sign is just an alias to jQuery(), then an alias to a function.

This page reports:

Basic syntax is: $(selector).action()

• A dollar sign to define jQuery
• A (selector) to "query (or find)" HTML elements
• A jQuery action() to be performed on the element(s)

Answer 3

The jQuery syntax is tailor made for selecting HTML elements and perform some action on the element(s).

Basic syntax is: $(selector).action()

A dollar sign to define jQuery A (selector) to "query (or find)" HTML elements A jQuery action() to be performed on the element(s)

More on this

Answer 4

In JavaScript it has no special significance (no more than a or Q anyway). It is just an uninformative variable name.

In jQuery the variable is assigned a copy of the jQuery function. This function is heavily overloaded and means half a dozen different things depending on what arguments it is passed. In this particular example you are passing it a string that contains a selector, so the function means "Create a jQuery object containing the element with the id Text".

Answer 5

The $ symbol simply invokes the jQuery library's selector functionality. So $("#Text") returns the jQuery object for the Text div which can then be modified.

Answer 6

The $ is just a function. It is actually an alias for the function called jQuery, so your code can be written like this with the exact same results:

jQuery('#Text').click(function () {
  jQuery('#Text').css('color', 'red');
});