How can I tell if a variable is wrapped in jQuery or not?

Question

I have a function that has the signature of:

function(id,target){
 //do stuff
}

The target parameter is assumed to be a jQuery wrapped object however it is possible that it could be a dom element in which case I'd like to wrap it in jQuery before I do operations on it. How can I test the target variable for jQuery?

possible duplicate of [Check if object is a jQuery object](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1853223/check-if-object-is-a-jquery-object) — Richard Ev, Oct 04 '11 at 15:35
you can also check the length of the variable. if it has a length defined as 0 then it's jquery. if the length is undefined then it's dom. — scrappedcola, Oct 04 '11 at 15:35
@scrappedcola Probably a bad idea, as arrays are not jQuery objects. — Andrew, Oct 04 '11 at 15:37
Richard, thanks for pointing that out. When I did my initial research I used "variable" in my search which didn't turn up any relevant results. — bittersweetryan, Oct 04 '11 at 15:38

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

3

You can use instanceof

obj instanceof jQuery

Check if object is a jQuery object

edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

Community

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answered Oct 04 '11 at 15:32

aziz punjani

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score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 04 '11 at 15:34

3

if(!(target instanceof jQuery)) {
  target = jQuery(target);
}

answered Oct 04 '11 at 15:34

John Strickler

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How can I tell if a variable is wrapped in jQuery or not?

2 Answers2