Child Selector (“parent > child”)


child selector

Description: Selects all direct child elements specified by "child" of elements specified by "parent".

  • version added: 1.0jQuery( "parent > child" )

    parent: Any valid selector.

    child: A selector to filter the child elements.

As a CSS selector, the child combinator is supported by all modern web browsers including Safari, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 7 and above, but notably not by Internet Explorer versions 6 and below. However, in jQuery, this selector (along with all others) works across all supported browsers, including IE6.

The child combinator (E > F) can be thought of as a more specific form of the descendant combinator (E F) in that it selects only first-level descendants.

Example:

Places a border around all list items that are children of <ul class="topnav"> .

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<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>child demo</title>
<style>
body {
font-size: 14px;
}
</style>
<script src="jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<ul class="topnav">
<li>Item 1</li>
<li>Item 2
<ul>
<li>Nested item 1</li>
<li>Nested item 2</li>
<li>Nested item 3</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Item 3</li>
</ul>
<script>
$( "ul.topnav > li" ).css( "border", "3px double red" );
</script>
</body>
</html>

Demo: