Question on how jquery variables work

Question on how jquery variables work

I am curious about how jquery variable operate in regards to how data is accessed .   If I create a variable  var hiddenUserData = $("#hiddenUserData").find("span") and try to loop through the data, is the entire html collection stored in the variable or is it still referencing the DOM?  I am trying to dymatically add content into a table via checkboxes, but it is very slow via internet explorer 8 and below.   I am trying to figure out if I should use an array instead of an html collection.