jQuery failing because of extra characters appended to switch statement

Question

I have the following code in my html page:

$("#rulecondition").change(function () {
    var txt = $(this).val();
    alert(txt);
    switch (txt)
    {
        case 'Always use this rule': 
            $('#callerid_condition_container').hide();
            $('#time_condition_container').hide();
            break;
        case 'Depends on who is calling':
            $('#callerid_condition_container').fadein();
            $('#time_condition_container').hide();
            break;
        case 'Depends on the time of day': 
            $('#time_condition_container').fadein();
            break;
        default:
    }
});

When I load the page, I'm getting a script error that says:

SCRIPT5009: 'â€‹' is undefined 
testpage, line 262 character 6

Here's what the rendered code looks like:

$("#rulecondition").change(function () {
    var txt = $(this).val();
    alert(txt);
    switch (txt)
    {
        case 'Always use this rule': 
            $('#callerid_condition_container').hide();
            $('#time_condition_container').hide();
            break;
        case 'Depends on who is calling':
            $('#callerid_condition_container').fadein();
            $('#time_condition_container').hide();
            break;
        case 'Depends on the time of day': 
            $('#time_condition_container').fadein();
            break;
        default:
    }
});â

As you can see, there's some funky character after the closing bracket for my jQuery method. I'm not sure how that's created or how to get rid of it! The other question I have is why the alert statement only shows the first word in each option? So for example, if the user selects "Always use this rule", the alert will show "Always".

copy the required code in notepad (excluding weired characters). remove your code from html and paste code copied in notepad. — Bhushan Kawadkar, Jun 11 '13 at 15:27
well, i would suggest notepad++, convert file to UTF8 without BOM and then save — A. Wolff, Jun 11 '13 at 15:28

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

2

You got 2 problems

Weird character :

Open your file in an editor like notepad++ and set it to display "all characters" (white spaces and all) then delete those "invisible" characters after your closing bracket.

Also, check if you're in UTF-8 and put it in UTF-8 without BOM. (EDIT : use "convert" instead of "encode")

Value with "Always" only

As https://stackoverflow.com/a/4901138/460368 statued, option's value attribute can't be anything. I guess you shouldn't use space in it.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

1
1

answered Jun 11 '13 at 15:35

Shikiryu

10,180
8
49
75

thanks. by the time you posted, i already rewrote and fixed. but next time, i'll just use notepad to find the pesky character. – mark li Jun 11 '13 at 15:42

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 11 '13 at 15:30

0

Can you give the contents of rulecondition.

The first thing that comes to mind with your funky character is a ms character. Did you copy and paste anything?-Try rewriting it from scratch.

answered Jun 11 '13 at 15:30

Seth McClaine

9,142
6
38
64

1

This should be a comment, not an answer. – Shikiryu Jun 11 '13 at 15:33
thanks. that worked. must have been some funky charcters from a copy paste... which is what I did to get the skeleton for the switch statement – mark li Jun 11 '13 at 15:41

jQuery failing because of extra characters appended to switch statement

2 Answers2