jQuery is a fast, small JavaScript library that simplifies HTML DOM traversal, event handling, animations, and AJAX calls with a concise, cross-browser API.
Why does it matter?
jQuery powers over 75% of the top 10 million websites. It abstracts browser inconsistencies and lets you do in one line what vanilla JS takes ten lines for. Understanding jQuery is essential for maintaining legacy codebases.
Learn what jQuery is, why it was created, how to include it in a page, and where it still makes sense in 2026.
Real-World Use Cases
🌐Legacy web application maintenance - Millions of enterprise and CMS-based apps (WordPress, Magento) are built on jQuery — you need it to read and modify their code.
⚡Rapid prototyping - Add interactivity to an HTML page in minutes — no build tools, no npm, just a script tag and you are ready.
🔌Plugin ecosystem - jQuery UI, DataTables, Select2, and thousands of plugins provide ready-made UI components with minimal setup.
📱WordPress theme development - WordPress ships jQuery globally — every theme and plugin author must know it to add custom interactivity.
Including jQuery in Your Page
The $ Function and Selectors
// $ is just an alias for the jQuery() function
// It accepts any CSS selector and returns a jQuery object
$('#myId') // by ID
$('.myClass') // by class
$('p') // all
tags
$('ul li') // descendants
$('input[type=email]') // attribute selector
$('p:first') // first paragraph
// Chaining — jQuery methods return the same object
$('#box').css('color','red').hide().fadeIn(500);
DOM Manipulation Basics
// Get and set text/HTML
$('#title').text(); // get text
$('#title').text('New text'); // set text
$('#box').html('Bold'); // set HTML
// Get and set attributes
$('img').attr('src'); // get src
$('img').attr('src','new.jpg'); // set src
$('input').val(); // get form value
$('input').val('default text'); // set form value
// Show, hide, toggle
$('#menu').hide();
$('#menu').show();
$('#menu').toggle();
$('#menu').fadeIn(400);
$('#menu').slideDown(300);
Q: Is jQuery still worth learning in 2026?
Yes for two reasons: (1) you will encounter it in nearly every legacy codebase and WordPress project, so reading and debugging jQuery is a professional necessity. (2) For simple DOM tasks without a build step it is still faster to write than vanilla JS. For new single-page apps, prefer vanilla JS or a modern framework.
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