:submit Selector

Categories: Selectors > Form | Selectors > jQuery Extensions

submit selector

Description: Selects all elements of type submit.

  • version added: 1.0jQuery( ":submit" )

The :submit selector typically applies to button or input elements. Note that some browsers treat <button> element as type="submit" implicitly while others (such as Internet Explorer) do not. To ensure that markup works consistently across all browsers and guarantee that it is possible to consistently select buttons that will submit a form, always specify a type property.

Additional Notes:

  • Because :submit is a jQuery extension and not part of the CSS specification, queries using :submit cannot take advantage of the performance boost provided by the native DOM querySelectorAll() method. For better performance in modern browsers, use input[type="submit"], button[type="submit"] instead.

Example:

Finds all submit elements that are descendants of a td element.

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<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>submit demo</title>
  <style>
  textarea {
    height: 45px;
  }
  </style>
  <script src="jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
 
<form>
<table id="exampleTable" border="1" cellpadding="10" align="center">
  <tr>
    <th>
      Element Type
    </th>
    <th>
      Element
    </th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <input type="button" value="Input Button">
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <input type="checkbox">
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <input type="file">
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <input type="hidden">
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <input type="image">
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <input type="password">
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <input type="radio">
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <input type="reset">
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <input type="submit">
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <input type="text">
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <select><option>Option</option></select>
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <textarea></textarea>
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <button>Button</button>
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <button type="submit">Button type="submit"</button>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
</form>
<div id="result"></div>
 
<script>
var submitEl = $( "td :submit" )
  .parent( "td" )
    .css({
      background: "yellow",
      border: "3px red solid"
    })
  .end();
 
$( "#result" ).text( "jQuery matched " + submitEl.length + " elements." );
 
// Prevent form submission
$( "form" ).submit(function( event ) {
  event.preventDefault();
});
 
// Extra JS to make the HTML easier to edit (None of this is relevant to the ':submit' selector)
$( "#exampleTable" ).find( "td" ).each(function( i, el ) {
  var inputEl = $( el ).children(),
    inputType = inputEl.attr( "type" ) ? " type='" + inputEl.attr( "type" ) + "'" : "" ;
  $( el ).before( "<td>" + inputEl[ 0 ].nodeName + inputType + "</td>" );
})
</script>
 
</body>
</html>

Demo: