# .find()

Categories: Traversing > Tree Traversal

## .find( selector ) Returns: jQuery

Description: Get the descendants of each element in the current set of matched elements, filtered by a selector, jQuery object, or element.

- #### version added: 1.0.find( selector )

  selectorA string containing a selector expression to match elements against.

- #### version added: 1.6.find( jQuery object )

  jQuery objectA jQuery object to match elements against.

- #### version added: 1.6.find( element )

  elementAn element to match elements against.

Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the `.find()` method allows us to search through the descendants 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.

The first signature for the `.find()`method accepts a selector expression of the same type that we can pass to the `$()` function. The elements will be filtered by testing whether they match this selector.

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 item II, we can find list items within it:

    $('li.item-ii').find('li').css('background-color', 'red');

The result of this call is a red background on items A, B, 1, 2, 3, and C. Even though item II matches the selector expression, it is not included in the results; only descendants are considered candidates for the match.

> Unlike in the rest of the tree traversal methods, the selector expression is required in a call to `.find()`. If we need to retrieve all of the descendant elements, we can pass in the universal selector `'*'` to accomplish this.

Selector context is implemented with the `.find()` `method;` therefore, `$('li.item-ii').find('li')` is equivalent to `$('li', 'li.item-ii')`.

As of jQuery 1.6, we can also filter the selection with a given jQuery collection or element. With the same nested list as above, if we start with:

    var $allListElements = $('li');

And then pass this jQuery object to find:

    $('li.item-ii').find( $allListElements );

This will return a jQuery collection which contains only the list elements that are descendants of item II.

Similarly, an element may also be passed to find:

    var item1 = $('li.item-1')[0];
    $('li.item-ii').find( item1 ).css('background-color', 'red');

The result of this call would be a red background on item 1.

### Examples:

#### Example: Starts with all paragraphs and searches for descendant span elements, same as $("p span")

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <p><span>Hello</span>, how are you?</p>
    <p>Me? I'm <span>good</span>.</p>
    <script>
      $("p").find("span").css('color','red');
    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo:

#### Example: A selection using a jQuery collection of all span tags. Only spans within p tags are changed to red while others are left blue.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <style>
        span { color: blue; }
      </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <p><span>Hello</span>, how are you?</p>
      <p>Me? I'm <span>good</span>.</p>
      <div>Did you <span>eat</span> yet?</div>
    <script>
      var $spans = $('span');
      $("p").find( $spans ).css('color','red');
    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo:

#### Example: Add spans around each word then add a hover and italicize words with the letter t.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <style>
      p { font-size:20px; width:200px; cursor:default;
          color:blue; font-weight:bold; margin:0 10px; }
      .hilite { background:yellow; }
      </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <p>
      When the day is short
      find that which matters to you
      or stop believing
      </p>
    <script>
      var newText = $("p").text().split(" ").join("</span> <span>");
      newText = "<span>" + newText + "</span>";

      $("p").html( newText )
        .find('span')
        .hover(function() {
          $(this).addClass("hilite");
        },
          function() { $(this).removeClass("hilite");
        })
      .end()
        .find(":contains('t')")
        .css({"font-style":"italic", "font-weight":"bolder"});

    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo: