Unable to choose the div element with id ":1"

Question

Unable to choose the div element with id ":1"

Just starting out with web development, and I have a div element with the following attributes:

<div class="" id=":1" role="treeitem" aria-selected="false" aria-expanded="false" aria-level="1" aria-labelledby=":1.label" aria-setsize="10" aria-posinset="1">

I've confirmed that my jQuery is functioning properly (currently using version 2.1.3). I've tried various selectors based on recommendations from several Stack Overflow posts regarding colons in selectors, but none seem to hide the desired element.

$(function() {
  $("#\\:1").hide();
  $("#\:1").hide();
  $(":1").hide();
  $("\3A1").hide();
  $("\3a1").hide();
  $("\3A 1").hide();
  $("\3a 1").hide();
  $('[aria-labelledby="\\:1.label"]').hide();
  $('[aria-labelledby="\\:1.label"] *').hide();

  $(document.getElementById(":1")).hide();
  $(document.getElementById("\:1")).hide();
});

None of the above calls are working as expected; either nothing happens or a syntax error occurs.

According to Chrome, the CSS path for this element is '#\3a 1'.

EDIT The following approach works:

$(function() {
  setTimeout(function() {
    $("#\\:1").hide();
  }, 1000);
});

The issue might be related to the fact that the div isn't fully loaded when I execute my jQuery code. Although this solution is not ideal due to the delay, it does work temporarily. I plan to reach out to the Google Group managing this API (blockly) to inquire about any callbacks that trigger upon loading of the content.

EDIT

A beginner mistake on my end – the content I was trying to access is actually inserted within an init function. This explains why it wasn't available when I initially called my jQuery. The correct placement for hiding the element would be within this context:

init = function() {

  Blockly.inject(document.getElementById('blocklyDiv'),
      {toolbox: document.getElementById('toolbox')});
  Blockly.Xml.domToWorkspace(Blockly.mainWorkspace,
      document.getElementById('startBlocks'));
  $("#\\:1").hide();
}

jquery html css jquery-selectors css-selectors

Answer 1

Answer №1

:1 is a valid id attribute in HTML5:

The id attribute defines a unique identifier for an element (ID).

This value must be unique within the element's subtree and must have at least one character. It cannot contain any spaces.

However, proper escaping may be necessary.

CSS - CSS ID selector

In CSS, to select an element by its ID, you can use the ID selector:

The ID attribute allows authors to assign an identifier to an element instance in the document tree. CSS ID selectors target elements based on their IDs. The syntax includes "#" followed by the ID value, which should be an identifier.

However, :1 is not a valid CSS identifier:

In CSS, identifiers (such as element names, classes, and IDs in selectors) can only include [a-zA-Z0-9] characters and ISO 10646 characters U+00A0 and above, along with hyphens (-) and underscores (_); they cannot begin with a digit, two hyphens, or a hyphen followed by a digit. Identifiers can also feature escaped characters and any ISO 10646 character as a numeric code.

Therefore, you cannot use the selector #:1, but you can escape it as #\:1.

#\:1 {
    /* CSS styles */
}

JavaScript - CSS ID selector

In JavaScript, you can utilize document.querySelector to retrieve the first element that matches a CSS selector. This applies to jQuery as well.

You can apply CSS.escape [warning - experimental technology] to escape the string and make it a valid CSS identifier:

document.querySelector("#" + CSS.escape(":1"));

Alternatively, you can use #\:1 directly. Keep in mind that in JavaScript string literals, the backslash (\) escapes characters, so "#\:1" becomes "#:1". Hence, you need to escape the backslash with another backslash:

document.querySelector("#\\:1");

Even if you use CSS.escape, remember to escape any backslashes or quotes in the ID within the string literal too.

JavaScript - ID

JavaScript offers document.getElementById, a method quicker and simpler than using CSS selectors.

It directly retrieves an element by its ID without requiring CSS escaping:

document.getElementById(":1");

If the ID contains backslashes or quotes, ensure to escape them within the string literal.

Answer 2

:1 is a valid id attribute in HTML5:

The id attribute defines a unique identifier for an element (ID).

This value must be unique within the element's subtree and must have at least one character. It cannot contain any spaces.

However, proper escaping may be necessary.

CSS - CSS ID selector

In CSS, to select an element by its ID, you can use the ID selector:

The ID attribute allows authors to assign an identifier to an element instance in the document tree. CSS ID selectors target elements based on their IDs. The syntax includes "#" followed by the ID value, which should be an identifier.

However, :1 is not a valid CSS identifier:

In CSS, identifiers (such as element names, classes, and IDs in selectors) can only include [a-zA-Z0-9] characters and ISO 10646 characters U+00A0 and above, along with hyphens (-) and underscores (_); they cannot begin with a digit, two hyphens, or a hyphen followed by a digit. Identifiers can also feature escaped characters and any ISO 10646 character as a numeric code.

Therefore, you cannot use the selector #:1, but you can escape it as #\:1.

#\:1 {
    /* CSS styles */
}

JavaScript - CSS ID selector

In JavaScript, you can utilize document.querySelector to retrieve the first element that matches a CSS selector. This applies to jQuery as well.

You can apply CSS.escape [warning - experimental technology] to escape the string and make it a valid CSS identifier:

document.querySelector("#" + CSS.escape(":1"));

Alternatively, you can use #\:1 directly. Keep in mind that in JavaScript string literals, the backslash (\) escapes characters, so "#\:1" becomes "#:1". Hence, you need to escape the backslash with another backslash:

document.querySelector("#\\:1");

Even if you use CSS.escape, remember to escape any backslashes or quotes in the ID within the string literal too.

JavaScript - ID

JavaScript offers document.getElementById, a method quicker and simpler than using CSS selectors.

It directly retrieves an element by its ID without requiring CSS escaping:

document.getElementById(":1");

If the ID contains backslashes or quotes, ensure to escape them within the string literal.

Answer 3

Answer №2

Quoting the official documentation for HTML4:

ID and NAME tokens must start with a letter ([A-Za-z]) followed by letters, digits ([0-9]), hyphens ("-"), underscores ("_"), colons (":"), and periods (".").

An ID beginning with : is not valid. Some browsers MIGHT accept it, but it's best to stick to starting your ID with letters.

In HTML5 this string is permissible, so if you're using HTML5 in your document, this shouldn't be an issue.

I will still keep this answer here in case it can assist someone facing a similar issue.

Answer 4

Quoting the official documentation for HTML4:

ID and NAME tokens must start with a letter ([A-Za-z]) followed by letters, digits ([0-9]), hyphens ("-"), underscores ("_"), colons (":"), and periods (".").

An ID beginning with : is not valid. Some browsers MIGHT accept it, but it's best to stick to starting your ID with letters.

In HTML5 this string is permissible, so if you're using HTML5 in your document, this shouldn't be an issue.

I will still keep this answer here in case it can assist someone facing a similar issue.

Unable to choose the div element with id ":1"

Answer №1

Answer №2

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