How can I check if a class doesn't exist?

Question

I don't know why this doesn't work, I'm just trying to check if .searchBar doesn't exist.

  var $school = "Washington";

  if(!$('.searchBar')){
     $('#schoolname').text($school); 
  }

Answer 1

if($('.searchBar').length === 0){

Remember, jquery always returns a wrapped set of matching elements. The list may be zero though.

Answer 2

Use .length to find if it exist if(!$('.searchBar').length){

jQuery $() function always return a jQuery object even if doesn't find any element. So you need to use .length property of the jQuery object to find if the element actually exist.