Select <a> values from ul li within a jQuery variable

Question

I have a jQuery variable as the following

var $data = "<li id='root'><a href='#'>Root node</a><ul><li><a href='#'>Child node</a></li></ul></li><li id='root2'><a href='#'>Root 2 node</a><ul><li><a href='#'>Child 2 Parent Node</a><ul><li><a href='#'>Child 2 child1</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href='#'>Child 2 child2</a></li></ul></li></ul></li>";

I want to fetch the values of each <a href=#> values and push it into an array.

Can any body help???

Answer 1

var arr = $($data).find('a[href="#"]').map(function(){
     return $(this).text()
}).get();

Demonstration (open the console)

Answer 2

You may use .map() :

var values = $("a[href='#']", $data).map(function() {
    return this.innerHTML;
}).get();

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/Vp7tN/