Convert jQuery element to a regular dom element

Question

A regular dom element is such as:

document.getElementById('a')

or

document.createElement('div')

But jQuery returns elements in another format, so for instance I'd like to convert what is returned by $('#a') to the same result as what is returned by document.getElementById('a')

Is this possible using jQuery?

thanks

Answer 1

You can reference the DOM element with .get(0) or [0], eg $('#foo')[0] assuming there is just one.

Answer 2

$('#a')[0] 

// oops my answer is too short