Alternative to .selector property now that it is removed in jQuery 1.9

Question

As of jQuery 1.9 the .selector property of jQuery objects has been removed. (I'm a little confused as to why, exactly). I actually use it in a few unique scenarios, and I know that I could do other things to prevent this. Just wondering if anyone knows another way of grabbing the selector as of 1.9?

$('#whatever').selector // (would of returned '#whatever')  

One example of where I need .selector is when I already have a group of checkboxes by name, and I want to see, within that group, which one is checked:

jsFiddle DEMO

var $test = $('input[name="test"]');

console.log( $test );
console.log( $(':checked', $test).attr('id') ); // returns --undefined--

console.log( 'now with .selector: ');
console.log( $($test.selector + ':checked').attr('id') ); // returns correct

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From the docs: .selector property on jQuery objects

The remaining purpose of the deprecated .selector property on a jQuery object is to support the deprecated .live() event. In 1.9, jQuery no longer attempts to maintain this property in chained methods, since the use of chained methods was never supported with .live(). Do not use the .selector property on a jQuery object. The jQuery Migrate plugin does not attempt to maintain this property.

Scevor

mind providing one of those few unique scenarios? (code, not description, please) – Earhart

$('#whatever').selector still seems to work. The documentation says "In 1.9, jQuery no longer attempts to maintain this property in chained methods [...]". Though api.jquery.com/selector claims it was removed. I don't know, it's a bit confusing. I guess an official statement might clarify this, maybe you can post in their mailing list/forum/group/whatever. – Zug

Why not store the selector seperately? – Displace

Uhm, in your use case, that's what .filter is for: api.jquery.com/filter. $test.filter(':checked').attr('id'). $(':checked', $test) cannot work, because input elements don't have any descendants. – Zug

@FelixKling damn it that does work better :/ Well shit I guess that's an easy enough alternative. Welp, that's embarrassing :) – Scevor

Yeah, well, we always learn something new :) – Zug

Just put your .filter() thing as an example for an answer. @FelixKling – Scevor

To answer Felix Kling, the official statement is quoted there and seems pretty unambiguous: Do not use the .selector property on a jQuery object. – Thilda

Possible duplicate of jQuery .selector property removed, workaround? – Marshamarshal

This question was asked prior to that one – Scevor

Answer 1

There should not be many reasons to actually need the original selector. In your specific use case, if you want to narrow down the set of selected elements, you can use .filter ^[docs]:

$test.filter(':checked').attr('id')

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$('#whatever').selector still seems to work though. The documentation says "In 1.9, jQuery no longer attempts to maintain this property in chained methods [...]". Though http://api.jquery.com/selector claims it was removed in 1.9. I don't know, it's a bit confusing.

Zug

Thanks! Must of been having a brainfart... overreacted that it was gone haha – Scevor

Answer 2

I would just save the selector in a variable like this:

var testSelector = 'input[name="test"]';
var test = $(testSelector);
console.log( $(testSelector + ':checked').attr('id') );

Hortense

Answer 3

For the code I was working on I was able to replace

if ($elem.selector == 'date-column-filter')){

with

if ($elem.hasClass('date-column-filter')){

Myalgia