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What is the $ in jQuery?
We know that $ is an alias of jQuery, while using jQuery javascript framework.
But internally what $ is ?
I mean whether it is an object, function or other thing?
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5 Answers
$ is a function object in jQuery. It can take a number of different types of parameters or methods. That's why you will see things like:
$("#content") In that use, it's just a function - identical to:
jQuery("#content") In this example, it returns an object that contains both the collection of DOM items matching the passed in CSS string and has a whole bunch of methods that let you operate on that collection of items it returned such as:
var html = $("#content").html() to get the innerHTML of that DOM object.
It is usually used like a function $(params), but can also has methods as an object $.get().
But, most of all $ is just a symbol for a function object that also has methods. It could be called foo or anything else so it's not anything unusual in Javascript.
2 Comments
LarsH
Not just a function. E.g. you can do
$.get('myhtmlpage.html', myCallBack); which would not be possible unless $ were also an object. See @Steffen's answer.
jfriend00
Since all functions are also objects in JS, I called it a function. In any case, I've enhanced my choice of wording.
$ is just and alias. Its same as jQuery Object. That is its reference to jQuery Object.
1 Comment
LarsH
This answer is just repeating parts of the question. Why are people upvoting it?
$ is an object, just like jQuery is. Besides, all objects in javascript are functions and all functions are objects.
3 Comments
Jacob
To understand recursion, one has to first understand recursion.
LarsH
+1 this is the only completely right answer so far.
Jatin Dhoot
@Cularis - This is what they call out of the box solution.
$ is a variable in exactly the same way that jQuery is a variable. And its value is a function.
Comments
It's just a pointer to the JQuery prototype function.
