jQuery, if any "one" value changes

Question

I have a piece of code where this guy wrote thirty functions for when a group of form values change.

I want to comprise them into a single function

$('#jobs_held').change(function() {
// do something, with a little variation
});

$('#residence_years').change(function() {
// do something, with a little variation
});

$('#how_long').change(function() {
// do something, with a little variation
});

Is there anyway I could do something like...

$('#jobs_held', '#residence_years', '#how_long').change(function(){
// do something, with a little variation
});

Answer 1

Join them into a single string to use the multiple-selector^[docs].

$('#jobs_held,#residence_years,#how_long').change(function(){
    // do something, with a little variation

    // "this" can be used to refer to the specific element 
    //     that received the event.

    alert( this.id ); // to alert the ID of the element
});

...or find some common identity like a class to select them all.

Answer 2

Give them all a class, e.g. "question", then simply $('.question').change(function() {});

You can access the id of the changed element within the function, if you need to vary it based on type.

edit: I suggested the class method over the multi-select as it's easier to maintain (you can add elements to the HTML without coming back to edit the JS). But yeah it's true, a multi-select is more inline with the actual question. And also, the better solution if altering the HTML is not viable.