How can I write an if then statement using "this" to determine if a field is empty?

I am simply trying to toggleClass on something based on if the form element is focused and if it's empty or not. But I can't figure out how to write the if then statement to test whether the field is empty or not.

Here is what I have:

    $(document).ready(function() {
  $('.step').focus(funct开发者_如何学运维ion() {

   $(this).next("div").toggleClass("selected").fadeTo(500, 1);

  });

  $('.step').blur(function() {

   if($(this[value==""])){
    $(this).next("div").toggleClass("selected").fadeTo(250, 0.5);
   }else{
    return;
   }
  });
 });

I have tried also if($(this).is(":empty"){ and it just kept acting like the field was empty even if it wasn't.

I also tried if($this).attr("value")==""){

How can I determine whether the field is empty?

---

Try $(this).val() instead. That's jQuery's way of getting field values.

if($(this).val().length > 0) {
    $(this).next("div").toggleClass("selected").fadeTo(250, 0.5);
} else {
    return;
}

---

Assuming .step is an input field, this should do:

if (this.value == "")

---

jQuery has the .val() method that can be used to get the value of a form element. You could compare this to the empty string:

if($(this).val() !== "") {
    // It has been filled
} else {
    // It is empty
}