jQuery.css() - marginLeft vs. margin-left?

Question

With jQuery.css() I\'ve been told I can use the following two functions for the same results:

$(\".element\").css(\"marginLeft\") = \"200px\";

$(\".element\         


        

Answer 1

when is marginLeft being used:

$("div").css({
    marginLeft:'12px',
    backgroundPosition:'10px -10px',
    minHeight: '40px'
});

As you can see, attributes that has a hyphen on it are converted to camelcased format. Using the margin-left from the previous code block above would make JavaScript bonkers because it will treat the hyphen as an operation for subtraction.

when is margin-left used:

$("div").css("margin-left","12px").css("background-position","10px -10px").css("min-height","40px");

Theoretically, both code blocks will do the same thing. We can allow hyphens on the second block because it is a string value while compared to the first block, it is somewhat an object.
Now that should make sense.

Answer 2

jQuery's underlying code passes these strings to the DOM, which allows you to specify the CSS property name or the DOM property name in a very similar way:

element.style.marginLeft = "10px";

is equivalent to:

element.style["margin-left"] = "10px";

Why has jQuery allowed for marginLeft as well as margin-left? It seems pointless and uses more resources to be converted to the CSS margin-left?

jQuery's not really doing anything special. It may alter or proxy some strings that you pass to .css(), but in reality there was no work put in from the jQuery team to allow either string to be passed. There's no extra resources used because the DOM does the work.

Answer 3

I think it is so it can keep consistency with the available options used when settings multiple css styles in one function call through the use of an object, for example...

$(".element").css( { marginLeft : "200px", marginRight : "200px" } );

as you can see the property are not specified as strings. JQuery also supports using string if you still wanted to use the dash, or for properties that perhaps cannot be set without the dash, so the following still works...

$(".element").css( { "margin-left" : "200px", "margin-right" : "200px" } );

without the quotes here, the javascript would not parse correctly as property names cannot have a dash in them.

EDIT: It would appear that JQuery is not actually making the distinction itsleft, instead it is just passing the property specified for the DOM to care about, most likely with style[propertyName];

Answer 4

Hi i tried this it is working.

$("#change_align").css({"margin-top":"-39px","margin-right":"0px","margin-bottom":"0px","margin-left":"719px"});

Answer 5

jQuery is simply supporting the way CSS is written.

Also, it ensures that no matter how a browser returns a value, it will be understood

jQuery can equally interpret the CSS and DOM formatting of multiple-word properties. For example, jQuery understands and returns the correct value for both .css('background-color') and .css('backgroundColor').

Answer 6

Late to answer, but no-one has specified that css property with dash won't work in object declaration in jquery:

.css({margin-left:'200px'});//won't work
.css({marginLeft:'200px'});//works

So, do not forget to use quotes if you prefer to use dash style property in jquery code.

.css({'margin-left':'200px'});//works