The $ dollar sign

Question

I have something simple like this:

$(selector).append("somestuff");

But since I\'m going to reuse the selector I cache it with:

Answer 1

I don't believe that you need to add the jQuery selector to jQuery objects (since it's already a part of the object). We don't add the selector and haven't run into any problems.

Answer 2

$ is just a name - names in JavaScript can contain dollar signs, and can consist of just a dollar sign.

Whether you use a dollar sign in your name isn't relevant to jQuery - there's nothing special about the dollar sign, except that jQuery defines a function called $.

Answer 3

I like to prefix all my jQuery object names with $ so that I know it's actually a jQuery object, not a DOM reference.

It's a good naming convention.

Answer 4

"$" is a function in jQuery. So when you call $(selector), you're actually calling the function $ with selector as the argument.

Generally, don't use the "$" as part of a variable name for javascript. You will only confuse yourself.

Answer 5

I've seen it done both ways. All you are doing is creating a variable with the name '$selector', so they are functionally equivalent. The nice thing about it is that it does make them easy to pick out as jQuery objects.

Answer 6

RichieHindle is correct. To expand:

Javascript variables allow the '$' character. So for example, you could have the following:

var $i = 1;
var i = 1;

Both i and $i have the same value, and both are perfectly legitimate variable names.

jQuery assigns itself (the jQuery object) to '$' because traditionally, that's what Javascript frameworks have done for selectors. There's no inherent meaning to '$' beyond what jQuery gives it.