Determine the order of two DOM elements

By Rebecca | December 30, 2007

categories: javascript, jquery, plugins

Inspired by this from PHP, I wanted a utility function to determine whether a given element came before or after another element in the DOM. 

 
(function($){
  $.order = function($a,$b) {
 
    $a = $a.eq(0);
    $b = $b.eq(0);
    var c = 'order-test';
 
    $a.addClass(c);
 
    if ($b.hasClass(c)) {
        // elements are the same
        return 0;
    }
 
    $b.addClass(c);
 
    var $elements = $('.'+c);
    $elements.eq(0).addClass(c+'-first');
 
    if ($a.hasClass(c+'-first')) {
        // $a is first
        return -1;
    } else if ($b.hasClass(c+'-first')) {
        // $b is first
        return 1;
    }
 
};
 
})(jQuery)
 

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