# .children()

Categories: Traversing > Tree Traversal

## .children( [selector] ) Returns: jQuery

Description: Get the children of each element in the set of matched elements, optionally filtered by a selector.

- #### version added: 1.0.children( [selector] )

  selectorA string containing a selector expression to match elements against.

Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the `.children()` method allows us to search through the immediate children of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object from the matching elements. The `.find()` and `.children()` methods are similar, except that the latter only travels a single level down the DOM tree. 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 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:

#### Example: Find all children of the clicked element.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <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 { margin:10px; border:1px solid transparent; }
      span { color:blue; border:1px solid transparent; }
      input { width:100px; }
      em { border:1px solid transparent; }
      a { border:1px solid transparent; }
      b { border:1px solid transparent; }
      button { border:1px solid transparent; }
      </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></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 (e) {
          $("*").removeClass("hilite");
          var $kids = $(e.target).children();
          var len = $kids.addClass("hilite").length;

          $("#results span:first").text(len);
          $("#results span:last").text(e.target.tagName);

          e.preventDefault();
          return false;
        });
    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo:

#### Example: Find all children of each div.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <style>
      body { font-size:16px; font-weight:bolder; }
      span { color:blue; }
      p { margin:5px 0; }
      </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></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:

#### Example: Find all children with a class "selected" of each div.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <style>

      body { font-size:16px; font-weight:bolder; }
      p { margin:5px 0; }
      </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></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>

#### Demo: