# .get()

Categories: Miscellaneous > DOM Element Methods

## .get( [index] ) Returns: Element, Array

Description: Retrieve the DOM elements matched by the jQuery object.

- #### version added: 1.0.get( [index] )

  indexA zero-based integer indicating which element to retrieve.

The `.get()` method grants us access to the DOM nodes underlying each jQuery object. Suppose we had a simple unordered list on the page:

    <ul>
      <li id="foo">foo</li>
      <li id="bar">bar</li>
    </ul>

Without a parameter, `.get()` returns all of the elements:

    alert($('li').get());

All of the matched DOM nodes are returned by this call, contained in a standard array:

[<li id="foo">, <li id="bar">]

With an index specified, .get() will retrieve a single element:

    ($('li').get(0));

Since the index is zero-based, the first list item is returned:

<li id="foo">

Each jQuery object also masquerades as an array, so we can use the array dereferencing operator to get at the list item instead:

    alert($('li')[0]);

However, this syntax lacks some of the additional capabilities of .get(), such as specifying a negative index:

    alert($('li').get(-1));

A negative index is counted from the end of the matched set, so this example will return the last item in the list:

<li id="bar">

### Examples:

#### Example: Selects all divs in the document and returns the DOM Elements as an Array, then uses the built-in reverse-method to reverse that array.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <style>
      span { color:red; }
      </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      Reversed - <span></span>

      <div>One</div>
      <div>Two</div>
      <div>Three</div>
    <script>

        function disp(divs) {
          var a = [];
          for (var i = 0; i < divs.length; i++) {
            a.push(divs[i].innerHTML);
          }
          $("span").text(a.join(" "));
        }

        disp( $("div").get().reverse() );
    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo:

#### Example: Gives the tag name of the element clicked on.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <style>
      span { color:red; }
      div { background:yellow; }
      </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <span>&nbsp;</span>
      <p>In this paragraph is an <span>important</span> section</p>

      <div><input type="text" /></div>
    <script>

        $("*", document.body).click(function (e) {
          e.stopPropagation();
          var domEl = $(this).get(0);
          $("span:first").text("Clicked on - " + domEl.tagName);
        });
    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo: