jquery

Is there any specific reason behind using $ with variable in jQuery

I know it's a silly question but I am a bit confused with this. For example, if I have an input with an ID: rad1, is there any difference between below lines of code? 

var $a = $('#rad1')

or 

var a = $('#rad1')
Solution

  • No there is no real difference.

    It's just a convention that helps you remember that a isn't the DOM element but it's a jQuery object.

    var a = document.getElementById('a');
a.innerHTML  //fine

var $a = $('#a');
$a.html()   // fine

    Ohhh, and by the way, neither a or $a are good variable names ... you should use meaningful variable names not abc characters.

    Read the jQuery info tag on this very same site:

    Variable Naming Conventions

    jQuery wrapped variables are usually named starting with '$' to distinguish them from standard JavaScript objects.

    var $this = $(this);