I want to store a selector in a variable and I want to use that object in instances where I need to find a class of '.active'. Which would return the object that is '.active'.
Basically, how would i write a selector like this: $('.classname.active')
var $varName = $('.multipleDivs');
$varName.hasClass('active'); // this returns true, but not the object
var $varName = $('.multipleDivs');
$('.active', $varName); // this returns an empty array
Your original guess is the right way to do it.
$(".multipleDivs.active")
alternatively, you can do
$varName.filter(".active")