Question

for example:

<li class="list" id="first-list"></li>  

var li = document.getElementById("first-list");
matchSelector(li, "li.list"); // this should return true  

now my solution could be described as:

function matchSelector(element, selector){  
     var all_matched_elements = $(selector);  
     return element in all_matched_elements
}  

but obviously this includes some unnecessary work.
is there a better solution?

Answer 1

You can use jQuery is method.

Something like:

var li = document.getElementById("first-list");
matchSelector(li, "li.list");

function matchSelector(element, selector){  
  return $(element).is(selector);
}  

Working example: http://jsfiddle.net/NqwxQ/