Question

I am writing some code for a website that uses 4 list items to show/hide 4 different divs at a different place on the page.

Here is a rough example of what I am doing:

<ul>
    <li id="first">One</li>
    <li id="second">Two</li>
    <li id="third">Three</li>
    <li id="fourth">Four</li>
</ul>

<div id="one">This is the first div</div>
<div id="two">This is the second div</div>
<div id="three">This is the third div</div>
<div id="four">This is the four div</div>

And I’ve got some ugly arse JS code going on, and for the life of me I can’t remember/figure out how to simplify it at all.

$("#first").click(function() {
    $("#one").fadeIn();
    $("#two, #three, #four").fadeOut();
});
$("#second").click(function() {
    $("#two").fadeIn();
    $("#one, #three, #four").fadeOut();
});
$("#third").click(function() {
    $("#three").fadeIn();
    $("#two, #one, #four").fadeOut();
});
$("#fourth").click(function() {
    $("#four").fadeIn();
    $("#two, #three, #one").fadeOut();
});​

​This does what I need it to, but I know there has to be a simpler way of doing it. Here is a JSFiddle of it working – http://jsfiddle.net/claycauley/FBrx5/

If any one can help me understand why/how to simplify it that would be great also, because I am trying to learn but getting stumped.

Answer 1

Try:

$("li").click(function() {
    $("div:visible").fadeOut();
    $("div").eq($(this).index()).fadeIn();
});​

http://jsfiddle.net/FBrx5/1/