Javascript selecting form elements using name attribute

Question

Is it possible to select a form element using it's name attribute?

For example if I had something like this:

<input type="text" name="my_element" />

How would I go about setting a javascript variable to the value of this input?

var name_val = $(input[name='my_element']).val();

?

Answer 1

Your almost there

var name_val = $('input[name=my_element]').val();

Answer 2

var name_val = $('input[name="my_element"]').val();

Answer 3

The following should work:

var name_val = $('input[name="my_element"]').val();

Answer 4

It's even more simple: $("#form_id").elements["my_element"]