Question

My table looks like this:

How can I get jquery to remove the dropdown or clear the contents from the last cell if my first cell has a value in it? The dropdown should only appear if the first two cells are blank.

<table>
<tr>headings here</tr>
<tr>
 <td>name</td>
 <td>id</td>
 <td>other id</td>
 <td>status</td>
 <td>select location</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>name</td>
 <td>id</td>
 <td>other id</td>
 <td>status</td>
 <td>select location</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>name</td>
 <td>id</td>
 <td>other id</td>
 <td>status</td>
 <td>select location</td>
</tr>
</table>

EDIT

Got it. I needed a trim().

http://jsfiddle.net/RN5Dn/1/

Answer 1

assuming that your table looks like

<table>
    <tr>
        <td>soon it will fade away</td>
        <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Last Samurai</td>
    </tr>
</table>

you can do this

$(function(){
    if(!$("table tr:first").find("td:first").text())
    {
        $("table tr:last").delay('1000').fadeOut("slow");
    }
});

you can remove the dropdown by selecting it and then removing it by using remove like

$("#idOfYourDropDown").remove();

here is the working fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/3nigma/uF7M5/4/

in the fiddle i have used delay so that the value remains visible for a bit of time

jquery :first

jquery :last

EDIT

i am assuming that if there is no name you want to hide/remove the select location

$(function(){

$("table tr").each(function(){

    if(!$("td:first",this).text())
    {
        $("td:last",this).delay("1000").fadeOut("slow");
    }

});

});

here is the fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/3nigma/uF7M5/3/