I want to set an asp.net's label with a blank value to "<blank>" with javascript/jQuery
<p>We have code in our website that does a comparsion to what was stored in the database with what the user types in the textbox.  This functionality works as is.  But, I wanted to add some code to to set a empty string value that shows up in the "lbl_hiredate_change" and set it equal to the string "blank".  I added the if statement with the comment "//my addition" in the below code.  Can someone suggest something that will work (this doesn't).  I only want to convert the "" to "blank" at runtime, and don't want that saved in the database.</p>

<p>Thanks,
Brad.</p>

<p>ASP.Net Code:    </p>

<pre><code>&lt;div&gt;    
    &lt;asp:TextBox  ID="tb_hiredate" CssClass="showOriginal required date" 
     title="Please enter the date this person was hired" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/asp:TextBox&gt;
    &lt;asp:Panel ID="show_hiredate_changed" CssClass="showOriginalLine" runat="server"&gt;
      (was: &lt;asp:Label ID="lbl_hiredate_changed" CssClass="showOriginalValue was-label" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/asp:Label&gt;)
    &lt;/asp:Panel&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
</code></pre>

<p>Javascript:</p>

<pre><code>$(document).ready(function () {
    $('input.showOriginal').change(function (e) {
        showOriginal($(this));
    });
});

function showOriginal(theControl) {
var thePanel = theControl.siblings('.showOriginalLine');
var theWasLabel = thePanel.find('.showOriginalValue');
if (theControl.val() == theWasLabel.html()) {
    thePanel.css('display', 'none');
}
else {
    //my addition.
    if ($('.was-label').val() == '') {
        $(this).val('blank');
    }
    thePanel.css('display', 'block');
}
</code></pre>

<p>}</p>
