jQuery & jQuery UI Documentation

jQuery & jQuery UI

.next()

.next( [selector] ) Returns: jQuery

Description: Get the immediately following sibling of each element in the set of matched elements. If a selector is provided, it retrieves the next sibling only if it matches that selector.

  • version added: 1.0.next( [selector] )

    selectorA string containing a selector expression to match elements against.

Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the .next() method allows us to search through the immediately following sibling of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object from the matching elements.

The method optionally accepts a selector expression of the same type that we can pass to the $() function. If the immediately following sibling matches the selector, it remains in the newly constructed jQuery object; otherwise, it is excluded.

Consider a page with a simple list on it:

<ul>
   <li>list item 1</li>
   <li>list item 2</li>
   <li class="third-item">list item 3</li>
   <li>list item 4</li>
   <li>list item 5</li>
</ul>

If we begin at the third item, we can find the element which comes just after it:

$('li.third-item').next().css('background-color', 'red');

The result of this call is a red background behind item 4. Since we do not supply a selector expression, this following element is unequivocally included as part of the object. If we had supplied one, the element would be tested for a match before it was included.

Examples:

Example: Find the very next sibling of each disabled button and change its text "this button is disabled".

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <style>

  span { color:blue; font-weight:bold; }
  button { width:100px; }
  </style>
  <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <div><button disabled="disabled">First</button> - <span></span></div>
  <div><button>Second</button> - <span></span></div>

  <div><button disabled="disabled">Third</button> - <span></span></div>
<script>$("button[disabled]").next().text("this button is disabled");</script>

</body>
</html>

Example: Find the very next sibling of each paragraph. Keep only the ones with a class "selected".

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <p>Hello</p>

  <p class="selected">Hello Again</p>
  <div><span>And Again</span></div>
<script>$("p").next(".selected").css("background", "yellow");</script>

</body>
</html>