why $.isEmptyObject($('#id-does-not-exist-on-page')) returns false?

Question

I\'m little confused by jQuery.isEmptyObject method.

$.isEmptyObject([]) -> returns true

but

$(\'#id-does-not-exist-

Answer 1

because $('#id-does-not-exist-on-page') returns a selector that matches nothing not an empty object which would be {}

Answer 2

According to the jQuery documentation (isEmptyObject) :

The argument should always be a plain JavaScript Object as other types of object (DOM elements, primitive strings/numbers, host objects) may not give consistent results across browsers

Answer 3

From isEmptyObject,

Check to see if an object is empty (contains no properties)

but,

$('#id-does-not-exist-on-page') still has properties.

$('#id-does-not-exist-on-page').addClass('abra_ka_dabra') // valid

[].addClass('abra_ka_dabra'); // TypeError: Object has no method 'addClass'

So,

try this instead

$.isEmptyObject($('#id-does-not-exist-on-page')[0])