When I am trying to do this:

var element_current_classes=($("#form_div :textarea").attr('class'));

or this:

var element_current_classes=($("#form_div :select").attr('class'));

I am getting this error - Uncaught Error: Syntax error, unrecognized expression: unsupported pseudo: textarea

It works only with 'input' and button

What I am trying to do is to find elements inside the form by their tags

Any ideas?

When I am trying to do this:

var element_current_classes=($("#form_div :textarea").attr('class'));

or this:

var element_current_classes=($("#form_div :select").attr('class'));

I am getting this error - Uncaught Error: Syntax error, unrecognized expression: unsupported pseudo: textarea

It works only with 'input' and button

What I am trying to do is to find elements inside the form by their tags

Any ideas?

• javascript
• jquery
• html

• Please read this w3/TR/CSS2/selector.html#pattern-matching – rafaelcastrocouto Commented Sep 18, 2013 at 13:01
• you can find list of additional selectors in sizzle (jq selector engine), there is no such selectors: github./jquery/sizzle/wiki/Sizzle-Documentation – A. Wolff Commented Sep 18, 2013 at 13:03

5 Answers 5

There is no selector called :textarea or :select - you can use element selector to select the textarea or select element

$("#form_div textarea").attr('class')
$("#form_div select").attr('class')

The :input pseudo selector used to select multiple kinds of input elements like input, select, textarea etc

Correct way to select an html element is

var element_current_classes=($("#form_div textarea").attr('class'));
var element_current_classes=($("#form_div select").attr('class'));

Note: In jQuery for html tags and form elements we use name of the tag

$('div').hide(); // this code will hide all divs

Where as : is a selector that is use to get a specific tag or element

$('div:last').hide(); // this code will hide only last div

var element_current_classes = $("#form_div select").attr('class');

you don't need : selector to get textarea or select . just use element selector. try this

 var element_current_classes=$("#form_div select").attr('class'); //select
 var element_current_classes=$("#form_div textarea").attr('class'); //textarea

You are confusing selectors like :input with HTML tag names, like teaxtarea.

$("#form_div textarea");

Will look for HTML tags <textarea> within elements with the ID HTML attribute id="form_div".

Whereas:

$("#form_div :input");

Will look for all input tags, such as <textarea>, <input>, <select> and <button>, within the element with `id="form_div".

Selectors (starting with :) are jQuery specific. See: http://api.jquery./category/selectors/