Question

Check out this simple example on jsfiddle

<div id ="a" data-siteid="00005">00005 turns into:</div>
<div id="b" data-siteid="S00005">S00005 turns into: </div>

code

$('#a').append($('#a').data("siteid"));
$('#b').append($('#b').data("siteid"));

​
result

00005 turns into:5
S00005 turns into: S00005

I would like to return “00005” and “S00005”.

Answer 1

Try

$('#a').append($('#a').attr('data-siteid'));
$('#b').append($('#b').attr('data-siteid'));

From the jQuery Docs

Every attempt is made to convert the string to a JavaScript value (this includes booleans, numbers, objects, arrays, and null) otherwise it is left as a string. To retrieve the value’s attribute as a string without any attempt to convert it, use the attr() method.