How can I convert a jQuery object to an Element?

Question

If I have a textarea like var textarea = $('textarea'), how can I set the value to it using the JavaScript property value, and not the jQuery property val()?

I think I need to convert textarea to a JavaScript object first, but how do I?

Answer 1

You can use the dereferencing operator, or the .get() method to "Retrieve the DOM elements matched by the jQuery object."

Examples:

txtArea[0].value = "something"; 

or:

txtArea.get(0).value = "something"; 

Answer 2

The jQuery .get() will do that for you

http://api.jquery.com/get/

Quoted:

Without a parameter, .get() returns all of the elements:

alert($('li').get()); 

With an index specified, .get() will retrieve a single element:

($('li').get(0)); 

...we can use the array dereferencing operator to get at the list item instead:

alert($('li')[0]);