jQuery Data Wrangling: When to Use $.data() vs. $.attr()?

Data Wrangling with jQuery: $.data vs $.attr

In the context of manipulating data attributes with jQuery, $.data and $.attr serve distinct purposes.

$.data: Internal Data Storage

$.data is primarily employed for storing data within jQuery's internal cache, $.cache, rather than directly in the DOM. When data is assigned to an element using $.data, it is associated with the element's object, allowing for complex objects and references to be stored. Additionally, $.data performs auto-casting, converting data from strings to recognized types like boolean, number, and JSON.

$.attr: HTML5 Data Attributes

In contrast, $.attr is used to set and retrieve HTML5 data attributes, which are stored as attributes in the DOM. These attributes are designed to facilitate data storage in a standardized manner. When using data attributes, it's crucial to note the hyphen-camelCase conversion that occurs. Hyphens in attribute names are automatically converted to camelCase when accessing data via $.data.

Best Practices

• For data received from the server, use $.data to store it on the DOM element's data attribute.
• For setting HTML5 data attributes, use $.attr.
• When accessing hyphenated data attribute names, use the camelCase version in JavaScript, as it's more consistent.
• To preserve the original string value of a data attribute, use $.attr.
• For automatic casting of data, such as numbers and strings, use $.data.
• In jQuery 1.8 rc 1 and later, numeric values are only auto-cast if their representation stays the same. For alternative numeric syntaxes, use a unary operator to cast the value to a Number.

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