:empty Selector

jQuery

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:empty Selector

Categories: Selectors > Content Filter

empty selector

Description: Select all elements that have no children (including text nodes).

  • version added: 1.0jQuery( ":empty" )

This is the inverse of :parent.

One important thing to note with :empty (and :parent) is that child elements include text nodes.

The W3C recommends that the <p> element have at least one child node, even if that child is merely text (see http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/text.html#edef-P). Some other elements, on the other hand, are empty (i.e. have no children) by definition: <input>, <img>, <br>, and <hr>, for example.

Example:

Finds all elements that are empty - they don't have child elements or text.

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                                        <!DOCTYPE html>
                                      
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                      
                                        <html>
                                      
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                      
                                        <head>
                                      
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                        <style>
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                       
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                        td { text-align:center; }
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                        </style>
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                        <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                      
                                        </head>
                                      
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                      
                                        <body>
                                      
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                        <table border="1">
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                          <tr><td>TD #0</td><td></td></tr>
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                          <tr><td>TD #2</td><td></td></tr>
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                       
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                          <tr><td></td><td>TD#5</td></tr>
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                        </table>
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                      
                                        <script>
                                        $("td:empty").text("Was empty!").css('background', 'rgb(255,220,200)');
                                        </script>
                                      
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                       
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                      
                                        </body>
                                      
                                    

                                  

                                  

                                    

                                      
                                        </html>
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