jQuery find returns empty string

Question

I am doing ajax POST and when it succeded I would like to replace current div with div from succeded ajax:

var dom;
var target;

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: "http://127.0.0.1/participants",   
    data: "action=addparticipant&userid=1",
    success: function (html) {

        dom = $.parseHTML(html);
        target = $(dom).find("#listParticipants").val();

        $('#listParticipants').html(target);                
    }
});

but it seems that target is empty...

and when I debug using firebug, than dom is:

[<TextNode textContent="\n\n">, <TextNode textContent="\n\n">,
div#listParticipants, <TextNode textContent="\n \n \n">,
<TextNode textContent="\n\n">, <TextNode textContent="\n\n">]

Could anyone help me solve this problem?

Regards

Ruan Mendes · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-05 15:23:10Z

2

You want to use $.filter(), not $.find

target = $(dom).filter("#listParticipants").html()

And as Juan pointed out, you want the innerHTML, not the value.

The reason you need to use filter is your console is showing an array of nodes and not a single DOM element. That means that you need to filter that set.

edited Aug 5, 2014 at 15:23

Ruan Mendes

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answered Aug 5, 2014 at 15:12

epascarello

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4 Comments

Spokey Over a year ago

Out of curiousity can you please explain why filter is better than find? It seems to be doing the same thing here.

epascarello Over a year ago

@Spokey Because dom is not an element, but an array of them.

Karl-André Gagnon Over a year ago

@JuanMendes .find only look for descendant. You can see that all his element are in the root of the array. This is the good answer.

Ruan Mendes Over a year ago

Edited just so I can upvote it now that I see why the OP should use filter

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:11:39Z

2

The $().val() method is for input fields. See http://api.jquery.com/val/

Also as pointed out by epascarello https://stackoverflow.com/a/25142313/227299, you have a set of nodes, so you need to $.filter, not $.find

If you want the innerHTML, use $(dom).filter("#listParticipants").html()

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:11

CommunityBot

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answered Aug 5, 2014 at 15:11

Ruan Mendes

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4 Comments

Karl-André Gagnon Over a year ago

Not the downvoter, but probably because this will not work. Same reason explained on epascarello's answer.

Ruan Mendes Over a year ago

@Karl-AndréGagnon Thanks, I hadn't realized that the HTML in question didn't have a root node

Hladeo Over a year ago

it is not working in my case. target was still empty. epascarello`s solution works :)

Ruan Mendes Over a year ago

@Hladeo Please describe in detail what you mean by it is not working. What is happening? Errors?

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