:text Selector

jQuery

:text Selector


text selector

Description: Selects all elements of type text.

  • version added: 1.0jQuery( ":text" )

$(':text') allows us to select all <input type="text"> elements. As with other pseudo-class selectors (those that begin with a ":") it is recommended to precede it with a tag name or some other selector; otherwise, the universal selector ("*") is implied. In other words, the bare $(':text') is equivalent to $('*:text'), so $('input:text') should be used instead.

Note: As of jQuery 1.5.2, :text selects input elements that have no specified type attribute (in which case type="text" is implied).

This difference in behavior between $(':text') and $('[type=text]'), can be seen below:

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$('<input>').is('[type=text]'); // false
$('<input>').is(':text'); // true

Additional Notes:

  • Because :text is a jQuery extension and not part of the CSS specification, queries using :text cannot take advantage of the performance boost provided by the native DOM querySelectorAll() method. For better performance in modern browsers, use [type="text"] instead.

Example:

Finds all text inputs.

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
textarea { height:25px; }
</style>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<input type="button" value="Input Button"/>
<input type="checkbox" />
<input type="file" />
<input type="hidden" />
<input type="image" />
<input type="password" />
<input type="radio" />
<input type="reset" />
<input type="submit" />
<input type="text" />
<select><option>Option</option></select>
<textarea></textarea>
<button>Button</button>
</form>
<div>
</div>
<script>
var input = $("form input:text").css({background:"yellow", border:"3px red solid"});
$("div").text("For this type jQuery found " + input.length + ".")
.css("color", "red");
$("form").submit(function () { return false; }); // so it won't submit
</script>
</body>
</html>