[javascript] jQuery replace one class with another

I have this jQuery and I'm changing styles in it but I've heard that the correct way to do it is to create a separate style and just replace classes with jQuery. Can you explain me how to do it correctly:

$('.corpo_buttons_asia').click(function() {           
    $('.info').css('visibility', 'hidden');
    $('.info2').css('visibility', 'visible');
    $(this).css('z-index', '20');
    $(this).css('background-color', 'rgb(23,55,94)');
    $(this).css('color', '#FFF');
    $('.corpo_buttons_global').css('background-color', 'rgb(197,197,197)');
    $('.corpo_buttons_global').css('color', '#383838');         
}); 

$('.corpo_buttons_global').click(function() { 
    $('.info').css('visibility', 'visible');
    $('.info2').css('visibility', 'hidden');
    $(this).css('background-color', 'rgb(23,55,94)');
    $(this).css('color', '#FFF');
    $('.corpo_buttons_asia').css('z-index', '2');
    $('.corpo_buttons_asia').css('background-color', 'rgb(197,197,197)');
    $('.corpo_buttons_asia').css('color', '#383838');
}); 

So instead of using .css() all the time I can create another class and just replace it with jQuery.

Sometimes when you have multiple classes and you really need to overwrite all of them, it's easiest to use jQuery's .attr() to overwrite the class attribute:

$('#myElement').attr('class', 'new-class1 new-class2 new-class3');

You can use .removeClass and .addClass. More in http://api.jquery.com.

jQuery.fn.replaceClass = function(sSearch, sReplace) {
    return this.each(function() {
        var s = (' ' + this.className + ' ').replace(
            ' ' + sSearch.trim() + ' ',
            ' ' + sReplace.trim() + ' '
        );
        this.className = s.substr(1, s.length - 2);
    });
};

EDIT

This is my solution to replace one class with another (the jQuery way). Actually the other answers don't replace one class with another but add one class and remove another which technically is not the same at all.

Here is an example:

Markup before: <br class="el search-replace"><br class="el dont-search-replace">
js: jQuery('.el').remove('search-replace').add('replaced')
Markup after: <br class="el replaced"><br class="el dont-search-replace replaced">

With my solution

js: jQuery('.el').replaceClass('search-replace', 'replaced')
Markup after: <br class="el replaced"><br class="el dont-search-replace">

Imagine a string replace function in whatever language:

Search: "search-replace"
Replace: "replaced"
Subject: "dont-search-replace"
Result: "dont-search-replace"
Result (wrong but actually what the other solutions produce): "dont-search-replace replaced"

PS If it's for sure that the class to add is not present and the class to remove is present for sure the most simple jQuery solution would be:
jQuery('el').toggleClass('is-present-will-be-removed is-not-present-will-be-added')

PPS I'm totally aware that if your selector equals the class to remove the other solutions would work just fine jQuery('.search-replace').removeClass('search-replace').addClass('whatever').
But sometimes you work with more arbitrary collections.

You may use this simple plugin:

(function ($) {
    $.fn.replaceClass = function (pFromClass, pToClass) {
        return this.removeClass(pFromClass).addClass(pToClass);
    };
}(jQuery));

Usage:

$('.divFoo').replaceClass('colored','blackAndWhite');

Before:

<div class="divFoo colored"></div>

After:

<div class="divFoo blackAndWhite"></div>

Note: you may use various space separated classes.

You can use jQuery methods .hasClass(), .addClass(), and .removeClass() to manipulate which classes are applied to your elements. Just define different classes and add/remove them as necessary.

You'd need to create a class with CSS -

.greenclass {color:green;}

Then you could add that to elements with

$('selector').addClass("greenclass");

and remove it with -

$('selector').removeClass("greenclass");

In jquery to replace a class with another you can use jqueryUI SwitchClass option

 $("#YourID").switchClass("old-class-here", "new-class-here"); 

you could have both of them use a "corpo_button" class, or something like that, and then in $(".corpo_button").click(...) just call $(this).toggleClass("corpo_buttons_asia corpo_buttons_global");

Create a class in your CSS file:

.active {
  z-index: 20;
  background: rgb(23,55,94)
  color: #fff;
}

Then in your jQuery

$(this).addClass("active");

Starting with the HTML fragment:

<div class='helpTop ...

use the javaScript fragment:

$(...).toggleClass('helpTop').toggleClass('helpBottom');