Is there a 'not found' exception for jquery selector?

Question

I just spent \'hours\' with the following scenario: (all back to the basics)

 $(\'#typo\').bind(\'click\' etc ...

I had a typo in the selec

Answer 1

You could use following snippet:

UPDATED to take care of context

DEMO

jQuery.debug = true;
$ = function (selector, context) {
    if (jQuery.debug && typeof selector === "string" && !jQuery(selector, context).length) 
        throw new Error("No element found!");
    return jQuery.apply(this, arguments);
};

Answer 2

The jquery selector returns an array of DOM Elements so if you check the length of it, if it is greater than 0 it found something, if it is equal to 0 it didn't

  if($("selector").length > 0) found;

Answer 3

You can use the length of the returned DOM elements as a falsy and throw a new error like so:

var el = '#el';

if ($(el).length){
    // Do Stuff
} else {
    throw new Error("Element "+el+" Doesn't Exist");
}

OR

// Ignores Empty Selector
if ($('#el').length){
    // Do Stuff
}

I hope this helps!

Answer 4

var element = $('#typo');
if (element.length > 0) {
    // element exists
}

Short of that, you would have to modify the jQuery source code to get that behavior.