How to get the first element and not use [0] in jQuery?

Question

I am new to jQuery, sorry if this is a stupid question.

When I use it, find the element using id, I know that theres always one match, and I would use the index [0] to access it. Is there a better way to do this? For example,

var gridHeader = $("#grid_GridHeader")[0]; 

Answer 1

You can use .get(0) , but ... you do not need to do this with an element found by identifier, which should always be unique. I hope this is just an oversight in the example ... if this is the case on your real page, you need to fix it so that your identifiers are unique and use a class (or other attribute) instead.

.get() (for example, [0] ) gets the DOM element if you want the jQuery object to use .eq(0) or .first() instead :)

Answer 2

$("#grid_GridHeader:first") works.

Answer 3

You can use the first method:

 $('li').first() 

http://api.jquery.com/first/

btw I agree with Nick Craver - use document.getElementById () ...

Answer 4

With the assumption that there is only one element:

  $("#grid_GridHeader")[0] $("#grid_GridHeader").get(0) $("#grid_GridHeader").get() 

... are equivalent by returning a single base element.

From jQuery source code, you can see that get(0) , under the covers, essentially does the same as approach [0] :

  // Return just the object ( num < 0 ? this.slice(num)[ 0 ] : this[ num ] ); 

Answer 5

http://api.jquery.com/eq/

 $("#grid_GridHeader").eq(0) 

Answer 6

You can use the first selector.

 var header = $('.header:first') 

Answer 7

You can try the following:
yourArray.shift()