asp.net ajax - What's the difference between $get and $find in JavaScript?

Question

I'm a .NET programmer who've just started to learn more about client side scripting, and I was wondering sometimes you use $get('value') and $find('value') and I've discovered that these are just shortcuts for document.getElementById('value') and Sys.Application.findComponent('value'), respectively.

However, I still don't understand: what is the difference between these two functions in JavaScript? What exactly are they looking up/retrieving when invoked?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

$get & $find are shortcut functions Microsoft has built into their Ajax JavaScript Library.

$get is short for the standard JavaScript GetElementById function. $find is short for .Net's findComponent() function. This is not a standard JavaScript function and is specific to Microsoft's Ajax JavaScript library.

Matt Berseth does a great write up of the differences & usages here.