How do you set a variable as an empty but healthy jQuery object?

Question

Beyond a for, I declare a variable with var list;. I use this variable inside a for loop like this:

// add the html to the list
if (list == undefined)
    list = item;
else
    list.append(item.contents());

itemis the cloned jquery object from the call $('list_template').clone();(list_template is a div element with <li>inside). What I am doing is creating a list, which I will appendTo () where I need it.

This code is currently working fine, but it doesn't seem right to me. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to correctly declare a variable as listan empty jQuery object. I tried both:

var list = $([]);
var list = $('');

Both of them cause append to work incorrectly (or as expected) with list.html () being null. Is there a way to initialize my variable for an empty jquery object, so all I have to do is list.append(item.contents());without if / else statements?

---

Edit: Well, to reduce confusion, here is the whole javascript function that currently works fine:

        var list;

        // Loop through all of the objects
        var objects = data.objects;
        for (x = 0; x < objects.length; x++) {
            // Clone the object list item template
            var item = $("#object_item_list_template").clone();

            // Setup the click action and inner text for the link tag in the template
            item.find('a').bind('click', { val: objects[x].Id }, function (e) { ShowObjectDetails(e.data.val); })
                          .html(objects[x].Name);

            // add the html to the list
            if (list == undefined)
                list = item;
            else
                list.append(item.contents());
        }
        // set the list of the topics to the topic list
        $("#object_list").empty();
        $('<ul>').appendTo("#object_list").append(list.contents());

The object list template is as follows:

<div id="object_item_list_template" style="display:none">
    <li class="object_item"><a href="#"></a></li>
</div>

All this works correctly, cloning the list item, customizing the action of the click and adding it to the list on the display.

I am trying to get rid of the if / else statement. I can't just do list.append (), because if the list is undefined (or not a jQuery object), it throws an exception.

Answer 1

jQuery :

$();

jQuery: http://api.jquery.com/jQuery/

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EDIT:

, if/else, list, - .

?

, - :

list = $( list.get().concat(item.get()) );

$.extend(list, item);

(, list jQuery.)

---

EDIT:

, push() jQuery.

- :

var list = $();  // Start off with empty jQuery object.

...

list.push(item.find('li').get(0));  // A jQuery object is an Array. You can `push()` new items (DOM elements) in.

...

('<ul>').appendTo("#object_list").append(list);

( , DOM jQuery.)

.

find() , #object_item_list_template:

$('li', '#object_item_list_template').clone();  // Clone the `li` without the `div`.

li. .