Question

I am wondering can this be done

var b = '<span id="test">hi </span> <p>some text </p>';

So now I want to get the hi from this variable can I somehow do a selector on b?

If it was on the page I could do $('#test').html();

Can this be done but passing jquery the contents of b?

Answer 1

Sure, just pass it in and drop your selector into .filter():

var b = '<span id="test">hi </span> <p>some text </p>';
var testText = $(b).filter('#test').text();

If element you’re looking for is contained within some root element in your string of HTML, use .find() instead.