# .first()

Categories: Traversing > Filtering

## .first() Returns: jQuery

Description: Reduce the set of matched elements to the first in the set.

- #### version added: 1.4.first()

Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the `.first()` method constructs a new jQuery object from the first matching element.

Consider a page with a simple list on it:

    <ul>
      <li>list item 1</li>
      <li>list item 2</li>
      <li>list item 3</li>
      <li>list item 4</li>
      <li>list item 5</li>
    </ul>

We can apply this method to the set of list items:

    $('li').first().css('background-color', 'red');

The result of this call is a red background for the first item.

### Example:

#### Highlight the first span in a paragraph.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <style>.highlight{background-color: yellow}</style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <p><span>Look:</span> <span>This is some text in a paragraph.</span> <span>This is a note about it.</span></p>
    <script>$("p span").first().addClass('highlight');</script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo: