jQuery( null/undefined ) behavior?

[biziclop]

Hi, I read the documentation for jQuery() at https://api.jquery.com/jQuery/ but I haven't found the official behavior for passing a single null or undefined value (or maybe other falsy values too, like false, 0, '') to jQuery().

Currently null and undefined (and other falsies) return an empty set, which is the behavior I would prefer, but I can't know from the docs if I can depend on it.

It's simpler to write $( elementOrNull ) than elementOrNull ? $( elementOrNull ) : $() or $( elementOrNull || []).

Thanks!

[dmethvin]

Thanks for asking! We define jQuery() with no arguments to return an empty set as of version 1.4, but you're right that there doesn't seem to be any explicit documentation about jQuery(undefined) or jQuery(null). We do have unit tests to guarantee they return an empty set though so you can count on it working.

Probably the easiest way to document this is to replace this sentence and say, "Calling the jQuery() method with no arguments returns an empty jQuery set (with a .length property of 0). Similarly, If an argument of null, undefined, an empty array ([]), or an empty string ("") is passed, the set contains no elements." At this point I don't think the comment about "as of jQuery 1.4" is useful considering that jQuery 1.3.2 is coming up on its tenth birthday.

[biziclop]

Thanks, I made a pull request with your sentence, I hope it's usable.