[jquery] jQuery - determine if input element is textbox or select list

How would I determine whether the element returned by an :input filter in jQuery is a textbox or select list?

I want to have a different behavior for each ( textbox returns text value, select returns both key and text)

Example setup:

<div id="InputBody">
<div class="box">
    <span id="StartDate">
        <input type="text" id="control1">
    </span>
    <span id="Result">
        <input type="text" id="control2">
    </span>
    <span id="SelectList">
        <select>
            <option value="1">Option 1</option>
            <option value="2">Option 2</option>
            <option value="3">Option 3</option>
        </select>
    </span>
</div>
<div class="box">
    <span id="StartDate">
        <input type="text" id="control1">
    </span>
    <span id="Result">
        <input type="text" id="control2">
    </span>
    <span id="SelectList">
        <select>
            <option value="1">Option 1</option>
            <option value="2">Option 2</option>
            <option value="3">Option 3</option>
        </select>
    </span>
</div>

and then the script:

$('#InputBody')
    // find all div containers with class = "box"
    .find('.box')
    .each(function () {
        console.log("child: " + this.id);

        // find all spans within the div who have an id attribute set (represents controls we want to capture)
        $(this).find('span[id]')
        .each(function () {
            console.log("span: " + this.id);

            var ctrl = $(this).find(':input:visible:first');

            console.log(this.id + " = " + ctrl.val());
            console.log(this.id + " SelectedText = " + ctrl.find(':selected').text());

        });

This question is related to jquery jquery-selectors

The answer is


If you just want to check the type, you can use jQuery's .is() function,

Like in my case I used below,

if($("#id").is("select")) {
 alert('Select'); 
else if($("#id").is("input")) {
 alert("input");
}

alternatively you can retrieve DOM properties with .prop

here is sample code for select box

if( ctrl.prop('type') == 'select-one' ) { // for single select }

if( ctrl.prop('type') == 'select-multiple' ) { // for multi select }

for textbox

  if( ctrl.prop('type') == 'text' ) { // for text box }