How to loop through all elements of a form jQuery

Question

I was just wondering what the best way of looping through all the child elements of a form would be? My form contains both input and select elements.

At the moment I

Answer 1

Do one of the two jQuery serializers inside your form submit to get all inputs having a submitted value.

var criteria = $(this).find('input,select').filter(function () {
    return ((!!this.value) && (!!this.name));
}).serializeArray();

var formData = JSON.stringify(criteria);

serializeArray() will produce an array of names and values

0: {name: "OwnLast", value: "Bird"}
1: {name: "OwnFirst", value: "Bob"}
2: {name: "OutBldg[]", value: "PDG"}
3: {name: "OutBldg[]", value: "PDA"}

var criteria = $(this).find('input,select').filter(function () {
    return ((!!this.value) && (!!this.name));
}).serialize();

serialize() creates a text string in standard URL-encoded notation

"OwnLast=Bird&OwnFirst=Bob&OutBldg%5B%5D=PDG&OutBldg%5B%5D=PDA"

Answer 2

As taken from the #jquery Freenode IRC channel:

$.each($(form).serializeArray(), function(_, field) { /* use field.name, field.value */ });

Thanks to @Cork on the channel.

Answer 3

$('#new_user_form').find('input').each(function(){
   //your code here
});