.parent()
.parent( [selector] ) Returns: jQuery
Description: Get the parent of each element in the current set of matched elements, optionally filtered by a selector.
-
version added: 1.0.parent( [selector] )
selectorA string containing a selector expression to match elements against.
Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the .parent() method allows us to search through the parents of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object from the matching elements. The .parents() and .parent() methods are similar, except that the latter only travels a single level up the DOM tree.
The 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 item A, we can find its parents:
$('li.item-a').parent().css('background-color', 'red');
The result of this call is a red background for the level-2 list. Since we do not supply a selector expression, the parent 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: Shows the parent of each element as (parent > child). Check the View Source to see the raw html.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
div,p { margin:10px; }
</style>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div>div,
<span>span, </span>
<b>b </b>
</div>
<p>p,
<span>span,
<em>em </em>
</span>
</p>
<div>div,
<strong>strong,
<span>span, </span>
<em>em,
<b>b, </b>
</em>
</strong>
<b>b </b>
</div>
<script>
$("*", document.body).each(function () {
var parentTag = $(this).parent().get(0).tagName;
$(this).prepend(document.createTextNode(parentTag + " > "));
});
</script>
</body>
</html>Example: Find the parent element of each paragraph with a class "selected".
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div><p>Hello</p></div>
<div class="selected"><p>Hello Again</p></div>
<script>$("p").parent(".selected").css("background", "yellow");</script>
</body>
</html>