Selector expressions

The jQuery factory function $() is used to find elements on the page to work with. This function takes a string composed of CSS-like syntax, called a selector expression. Selector expressions are discussed in detail in Chapter 2, Selecting Elements.

Simple CSS

Selector	Matches
*	All elements
#id	The element with the given ID
element	All elements of the given type
.class	All elements with the given class
a, b	Elements that are matched by a or b
a b	Elements b that are descendants of a
a > b	Elements b that are children of a
a + b	Elements b that immediately follow sibling elements a
a ~ b	Elements b that follow sibling elements a

Position among siblings

Selector	Matches
:nth-child(index)	Elements which are the indexth child of their parent element (1-based)
:nth-child(even)	Elements which are an even child of their parent element (1-based)
:nth-child(odd)	Elements which are an odd child of their parent element (1-based)
:nth-child(formula)	Elements which are the nth child of their parent element (1-based); formulas are of the form an+b for integers a and b
:first-child	Elements which are the first child of their parent
:last-child	Elements which are the last child of their parent
:only-child	Elements which are the only child of their parent

Position among matched elements

Selector	Matches
:first	The first element in the result set
:last	The last element in the result set
:not(a)	All elements in the result set that are not matched by a
:even	Even elements in the result set (0-based)
:odd	Odd elements in the result set (0-based)
:eq(index)	A numbered element in the result set (0-based)
:gt(index)	All elements in the result set after (greater than) the given index (0-based)
:lt(index)	All elements in the result set before (less than) the given index (0-based)

Attributes

Selector	Matches
[attr]	Elements that have the attribute attr
[attr="value"]	Elements whose attr attribute are value
[attr!="value"]	Elements whose attr attribute are not value
[attr^="value"]	Elements whose attr attribute begin with value
[attr$="value"]	Elements whose attr attribute end with value
[attr*="value"]	Elements whose attr attribute contain the substring value
[attr~="value"]	Elements whose attr attribute is a space-delimited set of strings, one of which is value
[attr|="value"]	Elements whose attr attribute is either equal to value or begins with value followed by a hyphen

Forms

Selector	Matches
:input	All <input>, <select>, <textarea>, and <button> elements
:text	<input> elements with type="text"
:password	<input> elements with type="password"
:file	<input> elements with type="file"
:radio	<input> elements with type="radio"
:checkbox	<input> elements with type="checkbox"
:submit	<input> elements with type="submit"
:image	<input> elements with type="image"
:reset	<input> elements with type="reset"
:button	<input> elements with type="button", and <button> elements
:enabled	Enabled form elements
:disabled	Disabled form elements
:checked	Checked checkboxes and radio buttons
:selected	Selected <option> elements

Other custom selectors

Selector	Matches
:header	Header elements (e.g. <h1>, <h2>)
:animated	Elements with an animation in progress
:contains(text)	Elements containing the given text
:empty	Elements with no child nodes
:has(a)	Elements containing a descendant element matching a
:parent	Elements that have child nodes
:hidden	Elements that are hidden, either through CSS or because they are <input type="hidden" />.
:visible	The inverse of :hidden
:focus	The element that has the keyboard focus