Question

$('#elmLeft').button({
            icons: {
                primary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-w"
            },
            text: false
        });
$('#elmRight').button({
            icons: {
                primary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-e"
            },
            text: false
        });
$('#elmTop').button({
            icons: {
                primary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-n"
            },
            text: false
        });
$('#elmBottom').button({
            icons: {
                primary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-s"
            },
            text: false
        });

Answer 1

function setButton($element, icon) {
    $element.button({
            icons: {
                primary: icon
            },
            text: false
        });
}
setButton($('#elmLeft'), "ui-icon-triangle-1-w");
setButton($('#elmRight'), "ui-icon-triangle-1-e");
setButton($('#elmTop'), "ui-icon-triangle-1-n");
setButton($('#elmBottom'), "ui-icon-triangle-1-s");

Alternatively you could just take the selector instead of a jQuery element, and only the last letter of the string, but that seems like overkill.