How to copy all the attributes of one element and apply them to another?

You can use the native Node#attributes property: http://jsfiddle.net/SDWHN/16/.

var $select = $("select");
var $div = $("div");

var attributes = $select.prop("attributes");

// loop through <select> attributes and apply them on <div>
$.each(attributes, function() {
    $div.attr(this.name, this.value);
});

alert($div.data("foo"));