.children( [selector ] )Returns: jQuery
Description: Get the children of each element in the set of matched elements, optionally filtered by a selector.
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version added: 1.0.children( [selector ] )
- selectorType: SelectorA string containing a selector expression to match elements against.
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Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the .children()
method allows us to search through the children of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object from the matching elements. The .children()
method differs from -find()
in that -children()
only travels a single level down the DOM tree while -find()
can traverse down multiple levels to select descendant elements (grandchildren, etc-) as well- Note also that like most jQuery methods, -children()
does not return text nodes; to get all children including text and comment nodes, use .contents()
.
The .children()
method optionally accepts a selector expression of the same type that we can pass to the $()
function. If the selector is supplied, the elements will be filtered by testing whether they match it.
Consider a page with a basic nested list on it:
<ul class="level-1"> <li class="item-i">I</li> <li class="item-ii">II <ul class="level-2"> <li class="item-a">A</li> <li class="item-b">B <ul class="level-3"> <li class="item-1">1</li> <li class="item-2">2</li> <li class="item-3">3</li> </ul> </li> <li class="item-c">C</li> </ul> </li> <li class="item-iii">III</li> </ul>
If we begin at the level-2 list, we can find its children:
$( "ul.level-2" ).children().css( "background-color", "red" );
The result of this call is a red background behind items A, B, and C. Since we do not supply a selector expression, all of the children are part of the returned jQuery object. If we had supplied one, only the matching items among these three would be included.
Examples:
Find all children of the clicked element.
<!doctype html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>children demo</title> <style> body { font-size: 16px; font-weight: bolder; } div { width: 130px; height: 82px; margin: 10px; float: left; border: 1px solid blue; padding: 4px; } #container { width: auto; height: 105px; margin: 0; float: none; border: none; } .hilite { border-color: red; } #results { display: block; color: red; } p, span, em, a, b, button { border: 1px solid transparent; } p { margin: 10px; } span { color: blue; } input { width: 100px; } </style> <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js" rel="external nofollow" rel="external nofollow" rel="external nofollow" ></script> </head> <body> <div id="container"> <div> <p>This <span>is the <em>way</em> we</span> write <em>the</em> demo,</p> </div> <div> <a href="#"><b>w</b>rit<b>e</b></a> the <span>demo,</span> <button>write the</button> demo, </div> <div> This <span>the way we <em>write</em> the <em>demo</em> so</span> <input type="text" value="early"> in </div> <p> <span>t</span>he <span>m</span>orning. <span id="results">Found <span>0</span> children in <span>TAG</span>.</span> </p> </div> <script> $( "#container" ).click(function ( event ) { $( "*" ).removeClass( "hilite" ); var kids = $( event.target ).children(); var len = kids.addClass( "hilite" ).length; $( "#results span:first" ).text( len ); $( "#results span:last" ).text( event.target.tagName ); event.preventDefault(); }); </script> </body> </html>
Demo:
Find all children of each div.
<!doctype html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>children demo</title> <style> body { font-size: 16px; font-weight: bolder; } span { color: blue; } p { margin: 5px 0; } </style> <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js" rel="external nofollow" rel="external nofollow" rel="external nofollow" ></script> </head> <body> <p>Hello (this is a paragraph)</p> <div><span>Hello Again (this span is a child of the a div)</span></div> <p>And <span>Again</span> (in another paragraph)</p> <div>And One Last <span>Time</span> (most text directly in a div)</div> <script> $( "div" ).children().css( "border-bottom", "3px double red" ); </script> </body> </html>
Demo:
Find all children with a class "selected" of each div.
<!doctype html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>children demo</title> <style> body { font-size: 16px; font-weight: bolder; } p { margin: 5px 0; } </style> <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js" rel="external nofollow" rel="external nofollow" rel="external nofollow" ></script> </head> <body> <div> <span>Hello</span> <p class="selected">Hello Again</p> <div class="selected">And Again</div> <p>And One Last Time</p> </div> <script> $( "div" ).children( ".selected" ).css( "color", "blue" ); </script> </body> </html>