Question

I’m trying to get each letter in a div element to change to a random colour from an array of colours. Then reset when the mouse moves off the div.

Here’s what I’ve got so far. I think I’m pretty close, apart from the fact it doesn’t actually work. This was built from a few different snippets on this site.

$(document).ready(function() {

    // COLOURS ARRAY
    var colours = Array("#ddd", "#333", "#999", "#bbb"), idx;

    $("DIV#header").hover(function(){

        $( $(this).text().split('')).each(function(index, character) {
            idx = Math.floor(Math.random() * colours.length);
            $(this).css("color", colours[idx]);
        });

    }, function() {
        $(this).css("color","#ddd");
    });

});

It doesn’t produce any JS errors. The 2nd function of the hover seems to work but not the first. Any help would be gratefully received!

Answer 1

A string is not an element and you cannot add a CSS property to it. You can put your letters in span elements and then style them, try this:

$(document).ready(function() {

    // COLOURS ARRAY
    var colours = Array("#ddd", "#333", "#999", "#bbb"), idx;

    $('DIV#header').hover(function(){

        $('span', this).each(function(index, character) {
            idx = Math.floor(Math.random() * colours.length);
            $(this).css("color", colours[idx]);
        });

    }, function() {
        $('span',this).css("color","#ddd");
    });

}); 

http://jsfiddle.net/BC5jt/