# :first Selector

Categories: Selectors > Basic Filter | Selectors > jQuery Extensions

## first selector

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

Description: Selects the first matched element.

The `:first` pseudo-class is equivalent to `:eq(0)`. It could also be written as `:lt(1)`. While this matches only a single element, :first-child can match more than one: One for each parent.

### Additional Notes:

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

### Example:

#### Finds the first table row.

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

      td { color:blue; font-weight:bold; }
      </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <table>
        <tr><td>Row 1</td></tr>
        <tr><td>Row 2</td></tr>

        <tr><td>Row 3</td></tr>
      </table>
    <script>$("tr:first").css("font-style", "italic");</script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo: