Question

is there a way to get all the unique values for a certain attribute.

e.g

<div class="bob" data-xyz="fish"></div>
<div class="bob" data-xyz="dog"></div>
<div class="bob" data-xyz="fish"></div>
<div class="bob" data-xyz="cat"></div>
<div class="bob" data-xyz="fish"></div>

I need to get all the distinct values for data-xyz attribute on div.bob,

so it should return fish, dog and cat.

Answer 1

Small code: Create an object and make ‘dog’ ‘fish’ ‘cat’ properties. That will make them unique. Then get the unique property names from the object. Simple and easy:

var items = {};
$('div.bob').each(function() {
    items[$(this).attr('data-xyz')] = true; 
});

var result = new Array();
for(var i in items)
{
    result.push(i);
}
alert(result);

http://jsfiddle.net/GxxLj/1/