Question

What is the difference between those two statements?

A:

$(document.getElementById('timer-' + endTimes[i].nid)).removeClass('hidden-timer').text('');

B:

$('#timer-' + endTimes[i].nid).removeClass('hidden-timer').text('');

[EDIT]

Thanks for all responses.

endTimes[i].nid is numeric, ex 340.

The most important difference for me was that line A is causing a WSOD, but line B works fine.

Answer 1

Both do the same, except that the selector can mess up with special characters: http://jsfiddle.net/pimvdb/Mwrpb/.

var id = "a:b";

$(document.getElementById('timer-' + id)).text('abc');
// works, 'timer-a:b' means an id of 'timer-a:b' here

$('#timer-' + id).text('def');
// won't work: '#timer-a:b' means an id of 'timer-a' with pseudo class 'b' here