Get current element's classes in jQuery
<pre><code>​&lt;button id="test" class="example whatever"&gt;Show classes&lt;/button&gt;​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

$('button').click(function(){
  var classes = $(this).attr('class');
  alert(classes);
});​
</code></pre>

<p>The above code returns the content of the <code>class</code> attribute. How can I get it to return the classes formatted?</p>

<p>For instance, in this case, I want the variable <code>classes</code> to have a value of <code>.example.whatever</code> instead of <code>example whatever</code>.</p>

<p>I've searched and the only solution that seemed to be provided is the code I demonstrated above.</p>
