I’m working on a web project and ran into a weird problem. I have some JavaScript code that works perfectly in newer browsers like IE8, Firefox, and Chrome, but it breaks when I test it in Internet Explorer 7.
Here’s the code that’s causing trouble:
var elementId = $(this).attr("id");
var lastChar = elementId[elementId.length - 1];
The issue seems to be with this specific line:
elementId[elementId.length - 1]
What I’m trying to do is get the last character from a string that I extracted from a div’s id attribute. The string is just normal text, nothing special about it. But IE7 seems to have problems with this syntax.
Does anyone know what’s going on here? Is there a different way to access string characters that works in IE7?
Just hit this same problem with some old enterprise software. IE7 handles strings weird - it doesn’t recognize bracket notation like elementId[elementId.length - 1]. Use elementId.slice(-1) instead. This grabs the last character and works across all IE versions. I’ve tested it on IE6 through IE11 and it’s solid.
yeah, classic ie7 problem. it didn’t support bracket notation for strings yet. really annoying when you’re stuck supporting old browsers. use elementId.substr(-1) instead - grabs the last character and works everywhere, including ie7.
IE7 doesn’t support bracket notation for string indexing - that’s your problem right there. Hit this same issue with legacy code a few years back. IE7 just doesn’t recognize bracket syntax as valid for strings. Use charAt() instead. Replace your line with elementId.charAt(elementId.length - 1) and it’ll work across all browsers, including IE7. charAt() has been around forever and works great in older browsers. I actually built a utility function to handle string operations consistently across different IE versions.