Question

In my previous question a poster suggested the following:

var formSubmitHandler = function (link, form) {
    var $form = $(form);
    var val = $form.valid();
    var action = $form.data('action');
    var entity = $form.data('entity');

I understand now that the $ before is used to show the variable is a jQuery object. My question is Why do I need the line “var $form = $(form)” ? Could I not just have $form = form?

Answer 1

form is the dom element, $form is a jQuery object selecting said dom element. jQuery has cool functions one can perform, the dom element has differnet functions and properties. Consider this utterly unrelated example:

html:

<div id="#someid">hi</div>

javascript:

var $someid = $("#someid");
var someid = document.getElementById("someid");
var content = $someid.html(); // returns 'hi'
var content2 = someid.innerHTML; // returns 'hi'

Note how the jQuery .html() function is different than the dom .innerHTML property.