Question

How can I pass arguments to a function that is assigned to variable.
For example:

var updateDiv = function() {
   var row = this;
   var values = "";
   $('input[type=text],textarea,input[type=radio]:checked,input[type=checkbox]:checked', this).each(function() {
       if ($(this).val()!="" && $(this).val()!=null) {
           if (values!="") values = values + ","+ $(this).val();
           else values +=  $(this).val();
         }
       });
      if (values!="") { 
       if(values.substring(0,1)==",") values = values.substring(1) +"<br>";
       else values = values +"<br>";
      } 
      $('.jist', row).append(values);
}

$('tr:has(input)').each(updateDiv);
$('tr:has(textarea)').each(updateDiv);

HTML:

<tr>
<td>ai</td><td> <input type="text" name="ai" id="ai"></td>
<td><input type="checkbox" name="ana" id="ana" value="N/A"></td>
<td><div class="jist"></div></td>
</tr>

I want to pass arguments to updateDiv -> updateDiv("mystring");
and I want to use “mystring” in the function this way – > $('.'+mystring, row).append(values);

Answer 1

Simple and Clean

Not sure how I missed the obvious here.

jQuery

var updateDiv = function(divClass) {    
    ...
    $(divClass, row).append(values);
}

$('tr:has(input)').each(function(){ updateDiv('.hist'); });
$('tr:has(textarea)').each(function(){ updateDiv('.something-else'); });

.

Global Variable Method

You could assign global variables with the class name. By defining the variable before each .each() the updateDiv function uses a different class name.

jQuery

var updateDiv = function() {    
    ...
    $(window.divClass, row).append(values);
}

window.divClass = '.hist';
$('tr:has(input)').each(updateDiv);
window.divClass = '.something-else';
$('tr:has(textarea)').each(updateDiv);​

.

HTML5 Data Method

You could assign values as data objects to the elements which are being called. I also cleaned up some of your selectors and jQuery redundancies.

Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/iambriansreed/KWCdn/

HTML

<table>
    <tr data-update=".hist">
        <td>AutoI</td>
        <td> <input type="text" name="autoIH_complaint" id="autoIH_complaint"></td>
        <td><input class="NA" type="checkbox" name="autoINA" id="autoINA" value="N/A"></td>
        <td><div class="hist"></div></td>
    </tr>
</table>

jQuery

var updateDiv = function() {

    var row = this, values = "";
    $('input:text,textarea,:radio:checked,:checkbox:checked', this).each(function() {
        if (this.value != "" && this.value != null) {
            if (values != "") values = values + "," + this.value;
            else values += this.value;
        }
    });
    if (values != "") {
        if (values.substring(0, 1) == ",") values = values.substring(1) + "<br>";
        else values = values + "<br>";
    }
    $(row.data('update'), row).append(values);
}

$('tr:has(input)').each(updateDiv);
$('tr:has(textarea)').each(updateDiv);​