Identifying an empty text node with jQuery + Javascript

Question

You'd think this was easy - but I'm having the hardest time with it.

Here's what I'm trying to identify:

<span class="cw-value-one"></span>

Here's what I'm using so far:

    $('span.cw-value-one').each(function(){
        var textNode = $(this).text();
        var type = typeof textNode;
        var len = textNode.length;
        if($(this).is(':empty')){
            $(this).siblings('span.cw-value-two').css({"position": "relative", "left": "1em"});
        }
    });

Ok, so textNode = "", type = string and len = 1 - none of which is helpful in identifying an empty text node, since a has a type of string and length of 1. The jQuery .is(':empty') is not working either.

So whow do you identify an empty text node in JQuery or plain ol' Javascript?

I'm confused, seems to be working for me, see here: http://jsfiddle.net/DGESk/ — Lucas Green, Sep 01 '12 at 03:39
[I also beg to differ with your theory about jQuery's .empty() method.](http://jsfiddle.net/Fayky/) — Ohgodwhy, Sep 01 '12 at 03:41
Is it possible that in your real application you have ` `, with a blank between the opening and closing tags? — Barmar, Sep 01 '12 at 03:44

Adil · Answer 1 · 2012-09-01T05:27:44.107

2

You might be having white space in span use trim() to remove spaces within span around the text, if any.

Live Demo

  var textNode = $(this).text().trim();

edited Sep 01 '12 at 05:27

answered Sep 01 '12 at 03:41

Adil

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

try checking by the length of the text.

$('span.cw-value-one').each(function(){
        var textNode = $(this).text();
        var type = typeof textNode;
        var len = textNode.length;

        if(len <= 0){
            $(this).siblings('span.cw-value-two').css({"position": "relative", "left": "1em"});
        }
    });

I would also recommend trimming the text. If you want to trim the text please also be sure to see this about ie not liking trim. .trim() in JavaScript not working in IE

Identifying an empty text node with jQuery + Javascript

2 Answers2