.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> 
