How to create an array of values from LI inside a UL

Question

I have a control which allows users to sort the <li> in whatever order they want. when the form submits I want to grab the text inside the <li> for each <li> put into an array, in the order on the form.

<ul id="sortable">
    <li class="ui-state-default">
        <span class="ui-icon ui-icon-arrowthick-2-n-s"></span>Protective Services
    </li>
    <li class="ui-state-default">
        <span class="ui-icon ui-icon-arrowthick-2-n-s"></span>Engineering Services and Public Works
    </li>
</ul>

I am grabbing the <li> 's with:

var ar = [];
ar = document.getElementById("sortable").getElementsByTagName("li");

I then go through the array:

for(i = 0; i < ar.length; i++){
    alert(ar[i].text());    //ar[i].anything results in console errors.
}

ar[i] displays [object HTMLLIElement] for every <li> available. if I try to access the .text/.val/id properties inside the items i get a console error. So I'm assuming this has to do with a parsing/conversion issue?

How do I properly create an array that looks like protective services,Engineering Services and Public Works and NOT like [object HTMLLIElement],[object HTMLLIElement] ? Or how do I access my text information from the <li> as a [object HTMLLIElement] ?

Answer 1

For a pure javascript solution use the innertext property

alert(ar[i].innerText);

Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/3fjursaw/

Answer 2

You need to get the jQuery object in order to use text() :

alert($(ar[i]).text());

JSFIDDLE: http://jsfiddle.net/rh6ufn23/1/ .

Answer 3

You need to use the properties ar[i].innerText or ar[i].textContent on DOM nodes. The method .text() would be used if you had a jQuery object

 var lis = document.getElementById("sortable").getElementsByTagName("li"); var data = []; for(var i=0; i<lis.length; i++){ data.push(lis[i].innerText); } var jsonFormated = JSON.stringify(data); document.getElementById("log").innerHTML = jsonFormated; 

 <ul id="sortable"> <li class="ui-state-default"><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-arrowthick-2-ns"></span>Protective Services</li> <li class="ui-state-default"><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-arrowthick-2-ns"></span>Engineering Services and Public Works</li> </ul> <div id="log"></div> 

Answer 4

the problem is that you work with the HTMLElement, which is of vanilla js, not jQuery. Try .innerHTML instead of .text()

Answer 5

jQuery solution:

$('li', '#sortable').each(function(){
    alert($(this).text()); 
});

Or to fix your solution in pure JS:

var ar = [];
ar = document.getElementById("sortable").getElementsByTagName("li");

for (i = 0; i < ar.length; i++) {
    alert(ar[i].innerText);
}

See fiddle .

Answer 6

Use :

var ar = [];
var listItems = $("#sortable li");
listItems.each(function(li) {
    ar.push($(this).text());
});

Working here: http://jsfiddle.net/csdtesting/0uddfms6/