Question

Is there an easy way to refer to the element’s value that is calling the .val() or .text() without double selecting or caching?

For example:

//NO
$(this).val($(this).val() + 'something');

//NO
var $this;
$this.val($this.val() + 'something');

Instead, use something such as the $& token in .replace()

'some string'.replace('str', '$&123');
//results - 'some str123ing'

Thanks.

Answer 1

You can pass a function to .val(), like this:

$(this).val(function(i, currentVal) { return currentVal + 'something'; });
//another example:
$(this).val(function(i, cVal) { return cVal.replace('str', '$&123'); });

This works for any number of elements, in the function i is the index and currentVal is what $(this).val() would get you. Just return in that function what you want the new value to be.