jQuery loop - setTimeout, addClass, removeClass

Question

I will be an easy one for JavaScripters. I had a long research but I couldn't find the right answer. I want a menu (basically just anchors and not list elements) to be highlighted like a slider with specific time delay.

Also, it would be nice if you know how to get rid all of these useless ids around using $("#menu a") and $(this). Since I cannot do much JavaScript (although I prefer the simplicity), here is my crappy code in jQuery that works, but it's not looping.

$("#anchor1").addClass("highlight");

function loopMenu() {
    window.clearTimeout();
    setTimeout(function(){$("#anchor1").removeClass("highlight");}, 4000);
    setTimeout(function(){$("#anchor2").addClass("highlight");}, 4000);
    setTimeout(function(){$("#anchor2").removeClass("highlight");}, 8000);
    setTimeout(function(){$("#anchor3").addClass("highlight");}, 8000);
    setTimeout(function(){$("#anchor3").removeClass("highlight");}, 12000);
    setTimeout(function(){$("#anchor4").addClass("highlight");}, 12000);
    setTimeout(function(){$("#anchor4").removeClass("highlight");}, 16000);
    setTimeout(function(){$("#anchor1").addClass("highlight");}, 12000);
}

loopMenu();

What I want: a script that removes Class from current element and addClass to the next anchor type element every 4 seconds and then jump to the first element and repeat it forever.

Here is a solved question that has a few relations to this, although I can't make it work either.

Answer 1

something like:

$(function () {
  var $anchors = $('.anchor');

  (function _loop(idx) {
    $anchors.removeClass('highlight').eq(idx).addClass('highlight');
    setTimeout(function () {
      _loop((idx + 1) % $anchors.length);
    }, 4000);
  }(0));
});

with:

<a class="anchor">A</a>
<a class="anchor">B</a>
<a class="anchor">C</a>
<a class="anchor">D</a>
<a class="anchor">E</a>
<a class="anchor">F</a>
<a class="anchor">G</a>

http://jsbin.com/oselux/1/

Answer 2

I would just go this way:

JS

var $anchors = $('a.anchor'), counter = 0;

setInterval(function(){

  $anchors.removeClass('highlight');
  $anchors.eq(counter++ % $anchors.length).addClass('highlight');

}, 4000);

Markup

<ul>
  <li><a href="#" class="anchor">I am an anchor</a></li>
  <li><a href="#" class="anchor">I am an anchor</a></li>
  <li><a href="#" class="anchor">I am an anchor</a></li>
  <li><a href="#" class="anchor">I am an anchor</a></li>
  <li><a href="#" class="anchor">I am an anchor</a></li>
</ul>

Fiddle.