Question

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What is the meaning of symbol $ in jQuery?
$ versus jQuery

I am a bit new to jQuery but have done some things with it. however i have never used jQuery() function and am curious what the purpose of it is.

Are these the same?

jQuery("body") 

$("body")

Answer 1

To be the only answer to address the second part of your answer:

jQuery.data() requires an element as the first parameter, which dictates which element you wish to retrieve or set information for.

.data() operates on a jQuery object, and internally calls jQuery.data(), passing the element(s) contained within the jQuery object as the first parameter [source].

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TLDR:

jQuery.data(document.body, 'foo', 'bar') === $(document.body).data('foo', 'bar');