The $ dollar sign

Question

I have something simple like this:

$(selector).append("somestuff"); 

But since I'm going to reuse the selector I cache it with:

var $selector = $(selector); 

So I end up with:

$selector.append("somestuff"); 

My question is, should I be doing that, or should I be doing:

var selector = $(selector); selector.append("somestuff"); 

Trying either one, both works. Which method is correct, and why? Is the $ in $selector unnecessary because the jquery object has already been declared in $(selector)?

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Edit

Thanks for the answers. It seems very simple and quite clear. Still, there seems to be disagreement over whether or not I should use $ in the variable. It would be nice for everyone to vote up an answer. :)

Answer 1

$ is just a name - names in JavaScript can contain dollar signs, and can consist of just a dollar sign.

Whether you use a dollar sign in your name isn't relevant to jQuery - there's nothing special about the dollar sign, except that jQuery defines a function called $.