jQuery check if attr = value

Question

I seem to be having trouble with my code. I need to say:

if ( $('html').attr('lang').val() == 'fr-FR' ) {
    // do this
} else {
    // do that
}

When I check the console, I just get an error telling me this isn't a function. Help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

You should be using `data()` for this sort of thing. – asawyer Jun 26 '12 at 15:55 — asawyer, Jun 26 '12 at 15:55
No. Html does have a attribute called lang. – Rich Bradshaw Jun 26 '12 at 15:58 — Rich Bradshaw, Jun 26 '12 at 15:58

score 112 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 26 '12 at 15:54

112

Just remove the .val(). Like:

if ( $('html').attr('lang') == 'fr-FR' ) {
    // do this
} else {
    // do that
}

answered Jun 26 '12 at 15:54

Miguel Ribeiro

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You answered to quickly dude, I have to wait 5 more minutes in order to accept it :) – beefchimi Jun 26 '12 at 16:03
You often want to check the `class` attribute for a value, but `class` attr can have multiple values separated by space, like this `
` so in that case you can use the function `hasClass()` to check for a value like so `$( "#mydiv" ).hasClass( "two" )` – Sumeet Pareek Aug 06 '21 at 12:54

zzzzBov · Answer 2 · 2012-06-26T16:10:37.080

jQuery's attr method returns the value of the attribute:

The .attr() method gets the attribute value for only the first element in the matched set. To get the value for each element individually, use a looping construct such as jQuery's .each() or .map() method.

All you need is:

$('html').attr('lang') == 'fr-FR'

However, you might want to do a case-insensitive match:

$('html').attr('lang').toLowerCase() === 'fr-fr'

jQuery's val method returns the value of a form element.

The .val() method is primarily used to get the values of form elements such as input, select and textarea. In the case of <select multiple="multiple"> elements, the .val() method returns an array containing each selected option; if no option is selected, it returns null.

Very thorough, great response. Thanks. – beefchimi Jun 26 '12 at 16:06 — beefchimi, Jun 26 '12 at 16:06

jQuery check if attr = value

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