How to select a single child element using jQuery?

Asked 24/9, 2009 at 20:52 Answered 20/11, 2020 at 23:22

Using jQuery how do I select a single child element? I've looked at the Traversing API and know I can select all the immediate children img elements like this:

$(this).children('img');

And to select the first child img element I could use a subscript like this:

$(this).children('img')[0];

But I guess I'm kind of surprised I can't do this:

$(this).child('img'); // no subscript, returns single element

Or have I missed something?

Curvet answered 24/9, 2009 at 20:52 Comment(0)

No. Every jQuery function returns a jQuery object, and that is how it works. This is a crucial part of jQuery's magic.

If you want to access the underlying element, you have three options...

Do not use jQuery
Use [0] to reference it

Extend jQuery to do what you want...

$.fn.child = function(s) {
    return $(this).children(s)[0];
}

Telford answered 24/9, 2009 at 21:2 Comment(3)

Ah ha! That was it. I was expecting the img element (trying to reference its 'src' property) instead of the jQuery object. Now I'll just use 'attr()' to get at the 'src' property. – Curvet 24/9, 2009 at 21:11

Thanks for 3) as well. I might consider doing that. :) – Curvet 24/9, 2009 at 21:12

No. If I use for example find("div")[0] I will not get div as a jQuery object. I will get div as HTMLElement. To get div as jQuery object one has to use .eq(0), as Greg said below. – Sailor 30/7, 2013 at 3:27

136

I think what you want to do is this:

$(this).children('img').eq(0);

this will give you a jquery object containing the first img element, whereas

$(this).children('img')[0];

will give you the img element itself.

Cumshaw answered 24/9, 2009 at 20:57 Comment(2)

Note that using find as in the first answer will give you all descendant elements, whereas child will give you only direct children. – Cumshaw 24/9, 2009 at 20:59

From jquery.com: .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. – Circumferential 16/11, 2022 at 7:32

No. Every jQuery function returns a jQuery object, and that is how it works. This is a crucial part of jQuery's magic.

If you want to access the underlying element, you have three options...

Do not use jQuery
Use [0] to reference it

Extend jQuery to do what you want...

$.fn.child = function(s) {
    return $(this).children(s)[0];
}

Telford answered 24/9, 2009 at 21:2 Comment(3)

Thanks for 3) as well. I might consider doing that. :) – Curvet 24/9, 2009 at 21:12

Maybe in this way?

$('img', this)[0]

Squish answered 24/9, 2009 at 20:58 Comment(1)

This will not necessarily select the direct child and, just as the accepted answer, this will return the element, not the jQuery object. – Carmellacarmelle 6/5, 2015 at 9:16

You can target the first child element with just using CSS selector with jQuery:

$(this).children('img:nth-child(1)');

If you want to target the second child element just change 1 to 2:

$(this).children('img:nth-child(2)');

and so on..

if you want to target more elements, you can use a for loop:

for (i = 1; i <= $(this).children().length; i++) {
    let childImg =  $(this).children("img:nth-child("+ i +")");
    // Do stuff...
}

Philemon answered 20/11, 2020 at 23:22 Comment(0)

Not jQuery, as the question asks for, but natively (i.e., no libraries required) I think the better tool for the job is querySelector to get a single instance of a selector:

let el = document.querySelector('img');
console.log(el);

For all matching instances, use document.querySelectorAll(), or for those within another element you can chain as follows:

// Get some wrapper, with class="parentClassName"
let parentEl = document.querySelector('.parentClassName');
// Get all img tags within the parent element by parentEl variable
let childrenEls = parentEl.querySelectorAll('img');

Note the above is equivalent to:

let childrenEls = document.querySelector('.parentClassName').querySelectorAll('img');

Gingili answered 22/2, 2019 at 9:13 Comment(0)

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                <li ><h6><strong>lorem</strong></h6></li>
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                <li ><h6><strong>Internet accessible on-demand information and an easy to use internet shop</strong></h6></li>
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Barthol answered 23/8, 2017 at 14:53 Comment(1)

$(function () { $('a').click(function() { $(this).parent().children('.dataContentSectionMessages').slideToggle(); }); }); this query will help to get the child item of a parent – Barthol 23/8, 2017 at 14:53

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