Question

In the following jQuery replaceText function, can someone please explain to me what the line remove.length && $(remove).remove(); does? I don’t understand the usage of && here.

$.fn.replaceText = function( search, replace, text_only ) {  
  return this.each(function(){  
    var node = this.firstChild,  
      val,  
      new_val,  
      remove = [];  
    if ( node ) {  
      do {  
        if ( node.nodeType === 3 ) {  
          val = node.nodeValue;  
          new_val = val.replace( search, replace );  
          if ( new_val !== val ) {  
            if ( !text_only && /</.test( new_val ) ) {  
              $(node).before( new_val );  
              remove.push( node );  
            } else {  
              node.nodeValue = new_val;  
            }  
          }  
        }  
      } while ( node = node.nextSibling );  
    }  
    remove.length && $(remove).remove();  
  });  
};  

Answer 1

Due to the way conditions short circuit, $(remove).remove(); will only be evaluated if remove.length is true-ish.

Since remove is declared as an array, it’s basically the same as:

if(remove.length != 0)
   $(remove).remove();