SO Answer

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18374624/how-can-i-select-id-in-jquery

by steveukx

HTML

<ul class="my-items" id="names">
<li id="john"><div>data from database</div></li>
<li id="peter"><div>data from database</div></li>
<li id="mathhewm"><div>data from database</div></li>
<li id="philip"><div>data from database</div></li>
<li id="tarheoweh"><div>data from database</div></li>
</ul>

JavaScript

jQuery(function() {
       jQuery(document).on('click', '#names li', function(e) {
          var clickedLi = e.currentTarget.id;
           
           alert(clickedLi)
       });
    })