Does jQuery have a method of determining if a particular table exists in a HTML document and alert(); me whether it does or does not exist?

The particular tables' existence I'm looking for in the document is:

<table id="main_table"

Does jQuery have a method of determining if a particular table exists in a HTML document and alert(); me whether it does or does not exist?

The particular tables' existence I'm looking for in the document is:

<table id="main_table"

• javascript
• jquery
• html
• html-table
• exists

3 Answers 3

$(function() {
    // after dom ready

    if($('table#main_table').length){
      alert('exists');
    }

})

at domready event just check

$(function() {
    if ($('#main_table').length) { ... /* element exists */ }

    /** 
     * or - without passing again through jQuery function -
     * if (document.getElementById('main_table')) { ... }
     */
});

$(document).ready(function() {
     $("#check").click(function() {
         if($('table#main_table').length){
          alert('Table Exists');
        }
    });
});

​

Example: http://jsfiddle/ipsjolly/3nVrZ/2/