How to add an id attribute to a html tag with a certain class using jQuery?

Question

I have a link with a class of special and I want to add an id attribute to it.

Only one element in my document will have this class at any one time (I may remove and add a new one at some point).

How would I add an id attribute to the element to change it from this:

<div class="special">

to this:

<div id="special-12345" class="special">

Answer 1

Adding the attribute is easy:

$('.special').attr('id', 'your-id-value');

The more potentially problematic part will be ensuring that the id's you are adding are unique.

Answer 2

Try this

$('div.special').attr('id','your-id');