Question

I am trying to iterate through all form elements with id that begins with a specified prefix and create an xml string with results, but it is getting a bit complicated as forms form input types seem to have different behaviors . Does this functionality already javascript, jQuery or third party jQuery module?

 function fnPreIterate(){                
         var XMLstring;
         $(':input[id*="f1"]').each(function() {             
            XMLstring += (" <" +this.name+ '>' + this.value + "</"  + this.name + "> " );       
        });         
        $('#XMLstring').html("<pre>" + fnEncodeEntities(string) + "</pre>");
};

Answer 1

If you use:

$(this).val() 

instead of

this.value

you’ll save a lot of headaches with difference in form elements.

Another way to iterate is to use .serializeArray():

$.each($('#form').serializeArray(), function() {             
            string += (" <" +this.name+ '>' + this.value + "</"  + this.name + "> " );      
        });

Hope this helps. Cheers

PS: To select by prefix, you should do $(':input[id^="f1"]') (use ^ instead of *)