# :even Selector

Categories: Selectors > Basic Filter | Selectors > jQuery Extensions

## even selector

#### version added: 1.0jQuery(':even')

Description: Selects even elements, zero-indexed. See also odd.

In particular, note that the 0-based indexing means that, counter-intuitively, `:even` selects the first element, third element, and so on within the matched set.

### Additional Notes:

- Because `:even` is a jQuery extension and not part of the CSS specification, queries using `:even` cannot take advantage of the performance boost provided by the native DOM `querySelectorAll()` method. To achieve the best performance when using `:even` to select elements, first select the elements using a pure CSS selector, then use `.filter(":even")`.

### Example:

#### Finds even table rows, matching the first, third and so on (index 0, 2, 4 etc.).

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

      table {
        background:#eeeeee;
      }
      </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <table border="1">
        <tr><td>Row with Index #0</td></tr>
        <tr><td>Row with Index #1</td></tr>

        <tr><td>Row with Index #2</td></tr>
        <tr><td>Row with Index #3</td></tr>
      </table>
    <script>$("tr:even").css("background-color", "#bbbbff");</script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo: