jQuery: execute method from string

Question

Is there a way to call methods by their name in jQuery? For example:

var condition = true;
$('div').execute(condition ? 'show':'hide');

• Spycho: What is it you are trying to do? It may be that there is a better solution not involving dictionary based access of methods.

Answer 1

Yes, use the []notation to access properties of the jQuery object (rather than literal ones using .):

$('div')[condition ? 'show' : 'hide']();

You can also do:

$('div').toggle(condition);

http://api.jquery.com/toggle/

http://www.jibbering.com/faq/faq_notes/square_brackets.html

Edit: Just in case you prefer your own style of coding, you could add this:

$.fn.execute = function(a) {
 return this[a].apply(this, [].slice.call(arguments, 1));
}

Then you can do like:

$('div').execute(condition ? 'show' : 'hide');

or

$('div').execute(condition ? 'keydown' : 'keyup', function() {...});

• pimvdb: @Dziamid: I use .toggle mostly, because it's clearer to read.

Answer 2

Javascript objects are basically dictionaries.

var condition = true;
$('div')[condition ? 'show':'hide']();