Common Uses for jQuery

jQuery is one of the more popular JavaScript utilities, mostly because of how useful it can be.  It's cross-browser so you don't have to worry about annoying browser differences in JavaScript implementations.  With the popularity of React, I find that I use jQuery less these days, however, it can still be useful on a wide range of projects.

Here are a few of my favorite uses:

Execute code when the page is loaded

$( document ).ready(function() {
  // code stuff here
});            

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OR

$(function() {
 // code stuff here
});

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Find all links on a page and alter the ones that lead to external websites

$('a')
    .filter('[href^="http"], [href^="//"]')
    .not('[href*="' + window.location.host + '"], [href*="www.exempt-domain.com"]')
    .attr('rel', 'noopener noreferrer')
    .attr('target', '_blank')
    .addClass('link-external');

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Find a value in an array

// search in an array
var test_array = ["one", "two", "red", "blue"];
var idx = $.inArray("two", test_array));

// search in a string
var test_string = "this is a string";
var idx = $.inArray("s", test_string);

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I'll add more to the list as I remember them…