# .contents()

Categories: Traversing > Miscellaneous Traversing

## .contents() Returns: jQuery

Description: Get the children of each element in the set of matched elements, including text and comment nodes.

- #### version added: 1.2.contents()

Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the `.contents()` 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 `.contents()` and `.children()` methods are similar, except that the former includes text nodes as well as HTML elements in the resulting jQuery object.

The `.contents()` method can also be used to get the content document of an iframe, if the iframe is on the same domain as the main page.

Consider a simple `<div>` with a number of text nodes, each of which is separated by two line break elements (`<br />`):

    <div class="container">
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed
      do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
      <br /><br />
      Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco
      laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
      <br /> <br />
      Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit
      esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
    </div>

We can employ the `.contents()` method to help convert this blob of text into three well-formed paragraphs:

    $('.container').contents().filter(function() {
      return this.nodeType == 3;
    })
      .wrap('<p></p>')
    .end()
    .filter('br')
      .remove();

This code first retrieves the contents of `<div class="container">` and then filters it for text nodes, which are wrapped in paragraph tags. This is accomplished by testing the `.nodeType` property of the element. This DOM property holds a numeric code indicating the node's type; text nodes use the code 3. The contents are again filtered, this time for `<br />` elements, and these elements are removed.

### Examples:

#### Example: Find all the text nodes inside a paragraph and wrap them with a bold tag.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <p>Hello <a href="http://ejohn.org/">John</a>, how are you doing?</p>
    <script>$("p").contents().filter(function(){ return this.nodeType != 1; }).wrap("<b/>");</script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo:

#### Example: Change the background colour of links inside of an iframe.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <iframe src="http://api.jquery.com/" width="80%" height="600" id='frameDemo'></iframe>
    <script>$("#frameDemo").contents().find("a").css("background-color","#BADA55");</script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo: