Get reference to an element which has exactly a certain value

Question

I want to get a reference to an elment which has exactly a certain text value with jquery css selector.

Example:

<table >
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <td>
    <i>MYVAL</i>  <!-- I want the reference to this element-->
   </td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

But I cannot succeed in it just writing

$('table tbody tr td i[value="MYVAL"]').SomeFunction();

Which is the correct syntax?

If you're asking a jQuery question, don't title-tag it with CSS please. — BoltClock, Jan 07 '13 at 15:17
The term for the text "MYVAL" is not `value`, it's `content`. The term "value" is used for `` elements (etc) that actually have a "value" attribute. — Pointy, Jan 07 '13 at 15:18
@DanieleB It's primarily a jQuery question, and you generally shouldn't include tags in the title of your questions anyway. Questions already *have* tags to specify what the question relates to. — Anthony Grist, Jan 07 '13 at 15:20
You cannot select an element by its exact text content with either a CSS selector or a jQuery selector (not even with `:contains()`). You're going to have to check its text manually. — BoltClock, Jan 07 '13 at 15:21
There is no exact text selector in jQuery due to whitespace ambiguities, see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6673777/select-link-by-text-exact-match for alternatives — Alex K., Jan 07 '13 at 15:22

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 07 '13 at 15:22

4

NOTE thats not using pure CSS selector!

Using .filter():

http://jsfiddle.net/p6fKe/

$('table tbody tr td i').filter(function(){return $(this).text() == "MYVAL"}).SomeFunction();

answered Jan 07 '13 at 15:22

A. Wolff

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What's not using a pure CSS selector? – BoltClock Jan 07 '13 at 15:46

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 07 '13 at 15:20

2

Use this code

$('table tr td i:contains("MYVAL")').SomeFunction()

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/enve/6wjDj/

answered Jan 07 '13 at 15:20

Idrizi.A

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3

That's going to match any `` element that contains `MYVAL` in its content, even if its content is not *exactly equal* to `MYVAL`. I'm not sure this will satisfy the requirements of the question. – Anthony Grist Jan 07 '13 at 15:22

algorhythm · Answer 3 · 2013-01-07T16:02:54.560

1

function selectTextElement(text) {
    var elements = [];
    $('table tbody tr td i').each(function() {
        if (jQuery(this).text() == text) {
            elements.push(jQuery(this));
        }
    });
    return elements;
}

edited Jan 07 '13 at 16:02

answered Jan 07 '13 at 15:21

algorhythm

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Get reference to an element which has exactly a certain value

3 Answers3