I am a JavaScript learner and have been researching this matter, but with no success. What is the $
symbol used for in JavaScript besides regular expressions?
It doesn't mean anything special.
But because $
is allowed in identifier names, many Javascript libraries have taken to using $
as the "central" interface to them, or at least as a shortcut for accessing their functionality.
For example, if you're using jQuery and you say $("div")
, this is a call to the $
function with argument "div". When you say $.post()
, it's calling the post
method on the $
object (Javascript is nice in that functions are first-class objects).