How to set data attributes in HTML elements

Question

HTML

<div id="mydiv" data-myval="10"></div>

JS

var a = $('#mydiv').data('myval'); //getter

$('#mydiv').data('myval',20); //setter

Demo

Reference

From the reference:

jQuery itself uses the .data() method to save information under the names 'events' and 'handle', and also reserves any data name starting with an underscore ('_') for internal use.

It should be noted that jQuery's data() doesn't change the data attribute in HTML.

So, if you need to change the data attribute in HTML, you should use .attr() instead.

HTML

<div id="outer">
    <div id="mydiv" data-myval="10"></div>
</div>

​JS:

alert($('#outer').html());   // alerts <div id="mydiv" data-myval="10"> </div>
var a = $('#mydiv').data('myval'); //getter
$('#mydiv').attr("data-myval","20"); //setter
alert($('#outer').html());   //alerts <div id="mydiv" data-myval="20"> </div>

See this demo

You can also use the following attr thing;

HTML

<div id="mydiv" data-myval="JohnCena"></div>

Script

 $('#mydiv').attr('data-myval', 'Undertaker'); // sets 
 $('#mydiv').attr('data-myval'); // gets

OR

$('#mydiv').data('myval'); // gets value
$('#mydiv').data('myval','John Cena'); // sets value

Vanilla Javascript solution

HTML

<div id="mydiv" data-myval="10"></div>

JavaScript:

• Using DOM's getAttribute() property

   var brand = mydiv.getAttribute("data-myval")//returns "10"
   mydiv.setAttribute("data-myval", "20")      //changes "data-myval" to "20"
   mydiv.removeAttribute("data-myval")         //removes "data-myval" attribute entirely
  

• Using JavaScript's dataset property

  var myval = mydiv.dataset.myval     //returns "10"
  mydiv.dataset.myval = '20'          //changes "data-myval" to "20"
  mydiv.dataset.myval = null          //removes "data-myval" attribute
  

Please take note that jQuery .data() is not updated when you change html5 data- attributes with javascript.

If you use jQuery .data() to set data- attributes in HTML elements you better use jQuery .data() to read them. Otherwise there can be inconsistencies if you update the attributes dynamically. For example, see setAttribute(), dataset(), attr() below. Change the value, push the button several times and see the console.

$("#button").on("click", function() {
  var field = document.querySelector("#textfield")

  switch ($("#method").val()) {
    case "setAttribute":
      field.setAttribute("data-customval", field.value)
      break;
    case "dataset":
      field.dataset.customval = field.value
      break;
    case "jQuerydata":
      $(field).data("customval", field.value)
      break;
    case "jQueryattr":
      $(field).attr("data-customval", field.value)
      break;
  }

  objValues = {}
  objValues['$(field).data("customval")'] = $(field).data("customval")
  objValues['$(field).attr("data-customval")'] = $(field).attr("data-customval")
  objValues['field.getAttribute("data-customval")'] = field.getAttribute("data-customval")
  objValues['field.dataset.customval'] = field.dataset.customval

  console.table([objValues])
})

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<h1>Example</h1>
<form>
  <input id="textfield" type="text" data-customval="initial">
  <br/>
  <input type="button" value="Set and show in console.table (F12)" id="button">
  <br/>
  <select id="method">
    <option value="setAttribute">setAttribute</option>
    <option value="dataset">dataset</option>
    <option value="jQuerydata">jQuery data</option>
    <option value="jQueryattr">jQuery attr</option>
  </select>
  <div id="results"></div>
</form>

If you're using jQuery, use .data():

div.data('myval', 20);

You can store arbitrary data with .data(), but you're restricted to just strings when using .attr().