Assuming I have this:

var wrap = $("#someId");

I need to access the original object that I would get by

var orig = document.getElementById("someId");

But I don't want to do a document.getElementById.

Is there something I can use on wrap to get it? something like:

var orig = wrap.original();

I searched high and low but I didn't find anything; or maybe I'm not looking for the right thing.

Assuming I have this:

var wrap = $("#someId");

I need to access the original object that I would get by

var orig = document.getElementById("someId");

But I don't want to do a document.getElementById.

Is there something I can use on wrap to get it? something like:

var orig = wrap.original();

I searched high and low but I didn't find anything; or maybe I'm not looking for the right thing.

• javascript
• jquery
• wrapper

5 Answers 5

The function for this is get. You can pass an index to get to access the element at that index, so wrap.get(0) gets the first element (note that the index is 0-based, like an array). You can also use a negative index, so wrap.get(-2) gets the last-but-one element in the selection.

wrap.get(0);  // get the first element
wrap.get(1);  // get the second element
wrap.get(6);  // get the seventh element
wrap.get(-1); // get the last element
wrap.get(-4); // get the element four from the end

You can also use array-like syntax to access elements, e.g. wrap[0]. However, you can only use positive indexes for this.

wrap[0];      // get the first element
wrap[1];      // get the second element
wrap[6];      // get the seventh element

$("#someId") will return a jQuery object, so to get at the actual HTML element you can do:

wrap[0] or wrap.get(0).

You can use get() to retrieve the HTML element.

var orig = wrap.get(0);

However, if wrap consists of multiple elements, you will need to know the correct index which to use when you use the get() function.

You can just use var orig = wrap[0]; as far as I know, if there's more than one element. If there's just the one, you can just use wrap without $() around it.

You can use wrap still.. Wrap is the same as 'orig' would be in the above! :)

If you really want:

var orig = wrap;