hi there,
I've collected an ajax response in msg variable.
The type of data received from ajax is of type HTML.

see below:

$(".test").click(function(event){
       $.get('temp.htm',success,typeofdata);
       var success=function(msg){

            //here want to extract the contents of msg.
            //eg. if msg='<div id="image"><img src="example.gif"></img></div>';
           //then i want to operate on $('#image') from above before 
           //putting it into another element

            $('#dest').html(msg);			
       }
       event.preventDefault();
});

So how can i select perticular DOM element from the response received.
Any guess?

Hmm. Well, when adding new elements to the DOM you can do like this:

var image = $('<div id="image"><img src="example.gif"></div>');
image.some_jquery_function();
$('#dest').append(image);

So possibly, you could just replace the first line with

var image = $(msg);

And when inserting the element you can choose what ever function you want of course, like append(), prepend(), insert(), insertBefore() etc. depending on where you want it. See the jQuery documentation.

that's right that i'm adding new DOM elements into document.
But, only those elements are added which are retrieved from ajax response.

In addition, the main motive is to operate on those elements before adding them into a page. Operating means like finding dimensions,inner html and other stuff like using those elements as they are like present in same document.

And all this before adding them into DOM.

Ajax Response may vary from images,text and other media.

Eg.

 
//if ajax response is like-
 msg='<div id="image"><img src="example.gif"></img></div>';

then i would like to change dimensions,inner html/text of suppose $('#dest')
Thank you in advance.

I stand by my previous response. Create a jQuery object off it and store it in a variable

var elem = $(msg);

Then do all the operations you want on it.

// change src of an image in the element
elem.first().attr('src', 'example2.gif');

// set a class to all image child nodes
elem.children('img').attr('class', 'my_image');

// add some text to the element
elem.append('<p>Some text</p>');

// add some content to a div inside the element and hide it
elem.find('#special_div').html('some content that will be hidden').hide();

// etc.

Although I doubt that you can find dimensions of anything before it is added to the dom.

Then add it to the dom

$('#dest').append(elem);

Oh, and by the way. <img> tags does not have an end tag (</img>).

Although I doubt that you can find dimensions of anything before it is added to the dom.

hmm, you're right.
And one more question.

I'm getting the cached ajax response.

I tried putting something like this while building querystring to avoid getting cached response-

var s=Math.random();
var url='some_file.html?id='+s;
$.get(url,success,datatype);

but it's not working.

I've never had that problem, but adding a random id should work. You do generate a new random id for every call, right?

ohh it works. i was'nt passing the url stuffed with random id. to ajax get method. i was using old url variable.
i was kinda fool. thanx for concern.