Is there an advantage in how I store my data using jQuery?

Question

I know understand more about how jQuery stores data.

Is there any advantage to doing one or the other of these:

$(\'#editCity\').data(\'href\', \"xx\");         


        

Answer 1

They both have advantages... That said, 99% of the time you should be using .data('whatever', value)

Advantages of using .data('whatever', value):

• less apt to cause memory leaks because it's not using the DOM.
• Slightly faster to pull data from memory than from the DOM.
• Can put any type of object in it without serializing it to JSON first.

Advantages of using .attr('data-whatever', value):

• compatible with .data('whatever')
• allows you to select the element by the value: $('[data-whatever=foo]')
• You can put any object in it, but it will need to serialize if it's a complex type.