How to find if div with specific id exists in jQuery?

Question

I’ve got a function that appends a <div> to an element on click. The function gets the text of the clicked element and assigns it to a variable called name. That variable is then used as the <div> id of the appended element.

I need to see if a <div> id with name already exists before I append the element but I don’t know how to find this.

Here is my code:

$("li.friend").live('click', function() {
  name = $(this).text();

  // if-statement checking for existence of <div> should go here
  // If <div> does not exist, then append element
    $("div#chatbar").append("<div class='labels'><div id='" + name + "' style='display:none;'></div>" + name + "</div>");

  // Else
    alert('this record already exists');
});

This seems pretty straightforward but I’m getting the error “Unexpected end of file while searching for class name”. I have no clue what that means.

if (document.getElementById(name)) {
  $("div#" + name).css({bottom: '30px'});
} else {
  $("div#page-content div#chatbar").append("<div class='labels'>" + name + "</div><div id='" + name + "'></div>");
}

What’s more is that I want to be able to delete this element if I close it out which should then remove the div id [name] from the document but .remove() does not do this.

Here is the code for that:

$(".mini-close").live('click', function(){
  $(this).parent().remove();
});

I added .mini-close to the append function as a child of .labels so there was a way to close out of the appended <div> if needed. After clicking .mini-close and attempting to click the same name again from li.friends it still finds the div id [name] and returns the first part of my if statement.

Answer 1

You can use .length after the selector to see if it matched any elements, like this:

if($("#" + name).length == 0) {
  //it doesn't exist
}

The full version:

$("li.friend").live('click', function(){
  name = $(this).text();
  if($("#" + name).length == 0) {
    $("div#chatbar").append("<div class='labels'><div id='" + name + "' style='display:none;'></div>" + name + "</div>");
  } else {
    alert('this record already exists');
  }
});

Or, the non-jQuery version for this part (since it's an ID):

$("li.friend").live('click', function(){
  name = $(this).text();
  if(document.getElementById(name) == null) {
    $("div#chatbar").append("<div class='labels'><div id='" + name + "' style='display:none;'></div>" + name + "</div>");
  } else {
    alert('this record already exists');
  }
});

Answer 2

Nick's answer nails it. You could also use the return value of getElementById directly as your condition, rather than comparing it to null (either way works, but I personally find this style a little more readable):

if (document.getElementById(name)) {
  alert('this record already exists');
} else {
  // do stuff
}

Answer 3

Try to check the length of the selector, if it returns you something then the element must exists else not.

if( $('#selector').length )         // use this if you are using id to check
{
     // it exists
}


if( $('.selector').length )         // use this if you are using class to check
{
     // it exists
}

Use the first if condition for id and the 2nd one for class.

Answer 4

if($("#id").length) /*exists*/

if(!$("#id").length) /*doesn't exist*/

Answer 5

if ( $( "#myDiv" ).length ) {
    // if ( "#myDiv" ) is exist this will perform
    $( "#myDiv" ).show();

}

Another shorthand way:

    $( "#myDiv" ).length && $( "#myDiv" ).show();

Answer 6

You can check by using jquery simply like this:

if($('#divId').length!==0){
      Your Code Here
}

Answer 7

The most simple way is..

if(window["myId"]){
    // ..
}

This is also part of HTML5 specs: https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/single-page.html#accessing-other-browsing-contexts#named-access-on-the-window-object

window[name]
    Returns the indicated element or collection of elements.

Answer 8

Here is the jQuery function I use:

function isExists(var elemId){
    return jQuery('#'+elemId).length > 0;
}

This will return a boolean value. If element exists, it returns true. If you want to select element by class name, just replace # with .

Answer 9

You can handle it in different ways,

Objective is to check if the div exist then execute the code. Simple.

Condition:

$('#myDiv').length

Note:

#myDiv -> < div id='myDiv' > <br>
.myDiv -> < div class='myDiv' > 

This will return a number every time it is executed so if there is no div it will give a Zero [0], and as we no 0 can be represented as false in binary so you can use it in if statement. And you can you use it as a comparison with a none number. while any there are three statement given below

// Statement 0
// jQuery/Ajax has replace [ document.getElementById with $ sign ] and etc
// if you don't want to use jQuery/ajax 

   if (document.getElementById(name)) { 
      $("div#page-content div#chatbar").append("<div class='labels'>" + name + "</div><div id='" + name + "'></div>");
    }

// Statement 1
   if ($('#'+ name).length){ // if 0 then false ; if not 0 then true
       $("div#page-content div#chatbar").append("<div class='labels'>" + name + "</div><div id='" + name + "'></div>");
    }

// Statement 2
    if(!$('#'+ name).length){ // ! Means Not. So if it 0 not then [0 not is 1]
           $("div#page-content div#chatbar").append("<div class='labels'>" + name + "</div><div id='" + name + "'></div>"); 
    }
// Statement 3
    if ($('#'+ name).length > 0 ) {
      $("div#page-content div#chatbar").append("<div class='labels'>" + name + "</div><div id='" + name + "'></div>");
    }

// Statement 4
    if ($('#'+ name).length !== 0 ) { // length not equal to 0 which mean exist.
       $("div#page-content div#chatbar").append("<div class='labels'>" + name + "</div><div id='" + name + "'></div>");
    }

Answer 10

put the id you want to check in jquery is method.

var idcheck = $("selector").is("#id"); 

if(idcheck){ // if the selector contains particular id

// your code if particular Id is there

}
else{
// your code if particular Id is NOT there
}