How to check if element is empty using jQuery?

You can use jQuery is() and :empty Selector together to check whether elements is empty or not before performing some action on that element.

 
if ($('#idDiv').is(':empty')){
  //do something
}

 
<Div id="idDiv">This Div is not empty</div>

Try it Yourself

This Div is not empty

Full Source

 
<html>
<head>
<title>jQuery isEmpty example</title>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
  $("#bt1").click(function(){
    if ($('#idDiv').is(':empty')){
      alert("is empty");
    }else{
      alert("not empty");
    }
  });
  $("#bt2").click(function(){
    if ($('.classDiv').is(':empty')){
      alert("is empty");
    }else{
      alert("not empty");
    }
  });
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<Div id="idDiv">This Div is not empty</div>
<button id="bt1">Not Empty</button>
<Div class="classDiv"></div>
<button id="bt2">Empty Div</button>
</body>
</html>

jQuery is() method

jQuery is() method checks if one of the selected elements matches the selectorElement. This method traverses along the DOM elements to find a match, which satisfies the passed parameter. It will return true if there is a match otherwise returns false .

:empty Selector

The :empty selector matches every element that has no children. Children can be either element nodes or text (including whitespace).

White space and line breaks are the main issues with using :empty selector . In CSS the :empty pseudo class behaves the same way. So, alternatively you can use the following method to check whether elements is empty or not.

 
if ($someElement.children().length == 0){
  doSomeAction();
}

If by empty , you mean with no HTML content and no white space either. If there's a chance that there will be white space, then you can use $.trim() and html() to check whether elements is empty or not.

 
if($.trim($("selector").html())==''){
  doSomeAction();
}

JavaScript

Using plain JavaScript , you can use the following code to check whether elements is empty or not.

 
var isEmpty = document.getElementById('cartContent').innerHTML === "";

Next : How to run an event handler only once in jQuery?