I guess the problem is this line: var ac = $("#operator")[0].autocompleter.findValue();
$(..)[0] gives you the first HTML Element in the object. It's not a jQuery object anymore, so the autocompleter property doesn't exist. IDs should be unique so that is unneeded, try changing it to var ac = $("#operator").autocompleter.findValue(); If you had a class or other selector that returns many elements, and you just want the first one, you'd use $(".operator:first").autocompleter.findValue(); or $(".operator").eq(0).autocompleter.findValue(); or $( $(".operator")[0] ).autocompleter.findValue(); //notice the re-wrapping. this is useful if you already have the $ ('.operator') object saved in a variable cheers, - ricardo On Mar 19, 12:37 pm, "brightdad...@googlemail.com" <brightdad...@googlemail.com> wrote: > Thanks for the suggestion Lauri. > > I have tried as asuggested and still dont see anything happening.