jquery core: small size optimizations for val().

src/core.js

@@ -358,10 +358,9 @@ jQuery.fn = jQuery.prototype = {
 
 	val: function( value ) {
 		if ( value == undefined ) {			
-
-			if ( this.length ) {
 			var elem = this[0];
 
+			if ( elem ) {
 				if( jQuery.nodeName( elem, 'option' ) )
 					return (elem.attributes.value || {}).specified ? elem.value : elem.text;
 				
@@ -394,10 +393,10 @@ jQuery.fn = jQuery.prototype = {
 					}
 
 					return values;				
+				}
 
 				// Everything else, we just grab the value
-				} else
-					return (this[0].value || "").replace(/\r/g, "");
+				return (elem.value || "").replace(/\r/g, "");
 
 			}