Question

Is it possible to select multiple elements using an array selector?

If so, what is the best way to do it? In my project, I need to use only array selectors.

This is my sample code:

<ul>
    <li>1<li>
    <li>2<li>
    <li>3<li>
    <li>4<li>
    <li>5<li>
</ul>
<a href="#">select</a>​

$('a').click(function(){
    var element = $('ul').find('li')[0]; // Instead is it possible $('ul').find('li')[0,3,4]? I know we can select finding each alone. But is there any shortcut?
    $(element).css({border:'1px solid red'});
})​

Answer 1

This would give desired result. Simply filter by index() and use inArray().

var arr = [0, 3, 5];
$('ul li').each(function() {
    if ($.inArray($(this).index(), arr) < 0)
        return;
    // Code here!
    $(this).css('border', '1px solid red');
});

Basicly all the <li> are run through the each() and then I loop to check if given .index() is in given array. If they don’t exist ( $.inArray() == -1 ) then I do a return; to skip execution.