jQuery exception if element doesn't exist

Question

I working with jQuery and I need to get anytime and anywere exception (with any operation), if I attach some event or try to perform some action with elements (got from selector) that don't exist. Is there some internal "strict" mode in jQuery for this issue?

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered May 11 '10 at 15:51

No, there isn't.

However, you could make a simple plugin for it:

$.fn.checkEmpty = function() {
    if (!this.length)
        throw new Error("No elements matched by " + this.selector);
    return this;
};

$('...').checkEmpty().bind(...);

Alternatively:

function $s() { return $.apply(this, arguments).checkEmpty(); }

$s('...').bind(...);

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:14

1

Check this post for ways to handle an "exists"

Exists in jquery

edited May 23 '17 at 12:14

Community

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answered May 11 '10 at 15:59

Mark Schultheiss

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This does not answer the question. – SLaks May 11 '10 at 17:36
Right, the real answer is "no" for strict mode, there are no modes. This just points out some alternatives. – Mark Schultheiss May 12 '10 at 11:49

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 11 '10 at 15:53

0

No, this is the beauty of jQuery.

You could create a wrapper function

function myjQuery() {
  var res = $.apply(this, arguments);

  if (!res.size()) {
    throw new Error("No elements matched :(");
  };

  return res;
};

myjQuery('input').each();

This won't mask empty sets returned by using find() or filter() and the like, but humm...

answered May 11 '10 at 15:53

Matt

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How come you see this as ‘beauty’? – Richard Möhn Jun 30 '20 at 08:07

jQuery exception if element doesn't exist

3 Answers3