.children()
.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] )
selectorA string containing a selector expression to match elements against.
Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the .children() method allows us to search through the immediate children of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object from the matching elements. The .find() and .children() methods are similar, except that the latter only travels a single level down the DOM tree. 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 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:
Example: Find all children of the clicked element.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<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 { margin:10px; border:1px solid transparent; }
span { color:blue; border:1px solid transparent; }
input { width:100px; }
em { border:1px solid transparent; }
a { border:1px solid transparent; }
b { border:1px solid transparent; }
button { border:1px solid transparent; }
</style>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></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 ><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 (e) {
$("*").removeClass("hilite");
var $kids = $(e.target).children();
var len = $kids.addClass("hilite").length;
$("#results span:first").text(len);
$("#results span:last").text(e.target.tagName);
e.preventDefault();
return false;
});
</script>
</body>
</html>Example: Find all children of each div.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
body { font-size:16px; font-weight:bolder; }
span { color:blue; }
p { margin:5px 0; }
</style>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello (this is a paragraph)</p>
<div><span>Hello Again (this span is a child of the a div)</span></div>
<p>And <span>Again</span> (in another paragraph)</p>
<div>And One Last <span>Time</span> (most text directly in a div)</div>
<script>$("div").children().css("border-bottom", "3px double red");</script>
</body>
</html>Example: Find all children with a class "selected" of each div.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
body { font-size:16px; font-weight:bolder; }
p { margin:5px 0; }
</style>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></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>