How to check if an object with an ID already exists on the page?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Is there an “exists” function for jQuery

Say for instance you have the div:

<div id="hello"></div>

And you are dynamically creating a div:

<div id="hello"></div>

Is there a function you can use in Jquery which will check to see if the object with the ID you are trying to create already exists on the page?

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered May 19 '11 at 01:40

16

For jQuery method you could go with

if($("#selector").length) {
    //object already exists
}

answered May 19 '11 at 01:40

Marek Karbarz

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered May 19 '11 at 01:39

15

if (document.getElementById('hello')) {
    // yup, already there
}

Or, the jQuery way:

if ($('#hello').length) {
    // yup, already there
}

answered May 19 '11 at 01:39

deceze

fantastic. Will accept when I can. – TaylorMac May 19 '11 at 01:42
Even shorter: `($('#hello')[0])` – Šime Vidas May 19 '11 at 01:44
If you are creating multiple elements before you add them to the page, you can give them the same id with this check. An element can have an id but will not be found with document.getElementById until it is part of the document. – kennebec May 19 '11 at 03:13
+1 nice to see both option mentioned here – jim tollan Jun 12 '14 at 12:29

2 Answers2