jQuery and JavaScript Phrasebook

Assigning Data Values to Objects

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$("li:eq(0)").data("race","Men"); $("li:eq(1)").data("race","Elves"); $("li:eq(2)").data({race:"Dwarves"}); $("li").each(function(){   $(this).append(" of the race of ");   $(this).append($(this).data("race")); });

jQuery provides the .data(key [,value]) method to store pieces of data as key=value pairs inside the DOM object. This allows you to attach additional pieces of data to the object that you can access later.

There is an alternate form of .data(object) that accepts JavaScript objects containing the key value pairs. This becomes useful when you are already working with objects.

To access a data item once it has been stored, simply call .data(key), which returns the object ...