Question

When I handle HTML form elements with jQuery, I always end up with an ugly mix of jQuery syntax and plain JavaScript like, e.g.:

function doStuff($combo){
    if( $combo.get(0).options[$combo.get(0).selectedIndex].value=="" ){
        var txt = "";
    }else{
        var txt = $combo.get(0).options[$combo.get(0).selectedIndex].text;
    }
    var $description = $combo.closest("div.item").find("input[name$=\[description\]]");
    $description.val(txt);
}

Are there standard jQuery methods to handle typical operations on elements like <select>, <input type="radio"> and <input type="checkbox">?

With typical, I mean stuff like reading the value of the selected radio button in a group or replacing elements in a selection list. I haven’t found them in the documentation but I admit that method overloading can make doc browser kind of tricky.

Update

Thanks everyone. Once in the right track, I figured out myself the rest of the stuff. E.g., I can handle a <select> list like any other DOM tree:

$("select")
    .empty()
    .append('<option value="">(Pick one)</option><option value="a">Option A</option><option value="b">Option B</option>');

Answer 1

Yes, you should be able to simplify your code a lot. Here are a few examples of working with form elements:

<input type="text">

$(':text') // select all text boxes
$('input#example').val(); // gets value of a text box

<input type="checkbox">

$(':checkbox') // selects all checkboxes
$('input.example:checked') // selects all ticked checkboxes with class 'example'
$('#example').is(':checked'); // true if checkbox with ID 'example' is ticked

<input type="radio">

$(':radio') // selects all radio buttons
$(':radio:checked').each( function() {
    $(this).val(); // gets value of each selected radio button
});
$('input:radio[name="asdf"]'); // gets particular group of radio buttons

<select>

$('select#example').change( function() {
    // this part runs every time the drop down is changed
    $(this).val(); // gets the selected value
});

See also http://api.jquery.com/category/selectors/form-selectors/ for more selectors.