div with the id="(name)" can I use this or not?

Question

Can I use id with "(" and ")" in jquery mobile ?

for example:

<div id="RSI(3,4)">
</div>

I have tried that id and want to access that element in js.

$("#RSI(3,4)").html("some text");

but it didn't worked.

Escape the special chars \\$... \\$ http://api.jquery.com/category/selectors/ — mplungjan, Sep 10 '13 at 12:38

mplungjan · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-10T12:49:47.470

5

Escape the special chars

$("#RSI\\(3\\,4\\)").html("some text");

http://api.jquery.com/category/selectors/

To use any of the meta-characters ( such as !"#$%&'()*+,./:;<=>?@[\]^`{|}~ ) as a literal part of a name, it must be escaped with with two backslashes: \\. For example, an element with id="foo.bar", can use the selector $("#foo\\.bar").

That said, about the validity of using special characters in an ID, some validators would complain and I do certainly NOT recommend using any special chars in an ID nor use leading digits just because you can according to the latest html specs. Make your life easier and use only a-zA-Z0-9 and if needed, underscore

edited Sep 10 '13 at 12:49

answered Sep 10 '13 at 12:40

mplungjan

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Very interesting, did not know this! Do you know if there are limitations on the use of this? e.g. incompatible browsers etc? – BenM Sep 10 '13 at 12:44
1

@BenM There shouldn't be any cross-browser compatibility issues, since jQuery's goal is to be browser-agnostic. If any exist, it's probably a jQuery bug. – ajp15243 Sep 10 '13 at 12:46
Only validators should complain and I do certainly NOT recommend using any special chars in an ID nor use leading digits just because you can according to the latest html specs. Use a-zA-Z and if needed, underscore – mplungjan Sep 10 '13 at 12:47
not working this code – Shakti Patel Sep 10 '13 at 12:47
uesd this $("#RSI\$3\\,4\$").html("some text"); – Shakti Patel Sep 10 '13 at 12:49
Thanks - I updated my answer. Missed the comma – mplungjan Sep 10 '13 at 12:52

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 10 '13 at 12:43

W3C Validator says that this html code

<html>
<head>
    <title>TITLE</title>
</head>
<body>
    <div id="RSI(3,4)"></div>
</body>
</html>

is valid for html5 but not for html4.01 Strict, for which ( is invalid character in id attribute. http://validator.w3.org/check

In jQuery you have to escape them with \\

http://api.jquery.com/category/selectors/

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 10 '13 at 12:49

1

can you please check this jsfiddle

$(document).ready(function() {
$("#RSI\\(3\\,4\\)").html("some text");
});

Working Fine

answered Sep 10 '13 at 12:49

Shakti Patel

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Thanks for pointing out the comma needed to be escaped too – mplungjan Sep 10 '13 at 12:50

div with the id="(name)" can I use this or not?

3 Answers3