jQuery

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About the Tutorial

jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript library created by John Resig in 2006. jQuery
simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for
Rapid Web Development.

Audience
This tutorial is designed for software programmers who wants to learn the basics of jQuery
and its programming concepts in simple and easy ways. This tutorial will give you enough
understanding on components of jQuery with suitable examples.

Prerequisites
Before proceeding with this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of HTML, CSS,
JavaScript, Document Object Model (DOM) and any text editor. As we are going to develop
web based application using jQuery, it will be good if you have understanding on how
internet and web based applications work

Copyright & Disclaimer

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All the content and graphics published in this e-book are the property of Tutorials Point (I)
Pvt. Ltd. The user of this e-book is prohibited to reuse, retain, copy, distribute or republish
any contents or a part of contents of this e-book in any manner without written consent
of the publisher.

We strive to update the contents of our website and tutorials as timely and as precisely as
possible, however, the contents may contain inaccuracies or errors. Tutorials Point (I) Pvt.
Ltd. provides no guarantee regarding the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of our
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in this tutorial, please notify us at [email protected]

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Table of Contents
About the Tutorial .................................................................................................................................... i

Audience .................................................................................................................................................. i

Prerequisites ............................................................................................................................................ i

Copyright & Disclaimer............................................................................................................................. i

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... ii

1. OVERVIEW........................................................................................................................... 1

What is jQuery? ...................................................................................................................................... 1

How to use jQuery? ................................................................................................................................. 1

Local Installation ..................................................................................................................................... 2

CDN Based Version .................................................................................................................................. 2

How to Call a jQuery Library Functions? .................................................................................................. 3

How to Use Custom Scripts?.................................................................................................................... 4

Using Multiple Libraries .......................................................................................................................... 5

What is Next ? ......................................................................................................................................... 6

2. BASICS ................................................................................................................................. 7

String ...................................................................................................................................................... 7

Numbers ................................................................................................................................................. 7

Boolean ................................................................................................................................................... 7

Objects .................................................................................................................................................... 8

Arrays...................................................................................................................................................... 8

Functions ................................................................................................................................................ 8

Arguments .............................................................................................................................................. 9

Context ................................................................................................................................................... 9

Scope .................................................................................................................................................... 10

Callback ................................................................................................................................................. 10

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Closures ................................................................................................................................................ 11

Proxy Pattern ........................................................................................................................................ 12

Built-in Functions .................................................................................................................................. 12

The Document Object Model ................................................................................................................ 13

3. SELECTORS ........................................................................................................................ 15

The $() Factory Function ........................................................................................................................ 15

How to Use Selectors?........................................................................................................................... 17

jQuery - Element Name Selector ........................................................................................................... 17

jQuery - Element ID Selector ................................................................................................................. 19

jQuery - Element Class Selector ............................................................................................................. 20

jQuery - Universal Selector .................................................................................................................... 22

jQuery - Multiple Elements Selector ...................................................................................................... 24

Selectors Examples ................................................................................................................................ 26

4. JQUERY ATTRIBUTES.......................................................................................................... 31

Get Attribute Value ............................................................................................................................... 31

Set Attribute Value................................................................................................................................ 32

Applying Styles ...................................................................................................................................... 33

Attribute Methods ................................................................................................................................ 34

attr( properties ) Method ...................................................................................................................... 35

attr( key, func ) Method ........................................................................................................................ 37

removeAttr( name ) Method ................................................................................................................. 39

hasClass( class ) Method ....................................................................................................................... 40

removeClass( class ) Method ................................................................................................................. 42

toggleClass( class ) Method ................................................................................................................... 43

html( ) Method ...................................................................................................................................... 44

html( val ) Method ................................................................................................................................ 46

text( ) Method ....................................................................................................................................... 47

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text( val ) Method ................................................................................................................................. 48

val( ) Method ........................................................................................................................................ 50

val( val ) Method ................................................................................................................................... 51

5. DOM TRAVERSING ............................................................................................................. 55

Find Elements by Index ......................................................................................................................... 55

Filtering Out Elements ........................................................................................................................... 57

Locating Descendent Elements .............................................................................................................. 58

JQuery DOM Filter Methods .................................................................................................................. 59

eq( index ) Method................................................................................................................................ 60

filter( selector ) Method ........................................................................................................................ 61

filter( fn ) Method ................................................................................................................................. 63

is( selector ) Method ............................................................................................................................. 64

map( callback ) Method......................................................................................................................... 66

not( selector ) Method .......................................................................................................................... 68

slice( start, end ) Method ...................................................................................................................... 70

JQuery DOM Traversing Methods ......................................................................................................... 71

add( selector ) Method .......................................................................................................................... 73

andSelf( ) Method ................................................................................................................................. 75

children( [selector] ) Method ................................................................................................................ 76

closest( selector ) Method ..................................................................................................................... 77

contents( ) Method ............................................................................................................................... 79

end( ) Method ....................................................................................................................................... 80

find( selector ) Method ......................................................................................................................... 81

next( [selector] ) Method ...................................................................................................................... 83

nextAll( [selector] ) Method .................................................................................................................. 84

offsetParent() Method .......................................................................................................................... 85

parent( [selector] ) Method ................................................................................................................... 86

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parents( [selector] ) Method ................................................................................................................. 88

prev( [selector] ) Method ...................................................................................................................... 89

prevAll( [selector] ) Method .................................................................................................................. 91

siblings( [selector] ) Method ................................................................................................................. 92

6. CSS SELECTOR METHODS .................................................................................................. 94

Apply CSS Properties ............................................................................................................................. 94

Apply Multiple CSS Properties ............................................................................................................... 94

Setting Element Width & Height ........................................................................................................... 96

JQuery CSS Methods ............................................................................................................................. 97

css( name ) Method ............................................................................................................................... 98

css( name, value ) Method .................................................................................................................. 100

css( properties ) Method ..................................................................................................................... 101

height( val ) Method............................................................................................................................ 103

height( ) Method ................................................................................................................................. 105

innerHeight( ) Method ........................................................................................................................ 106

innerWidth( ) Method ......................................................................................................................... 108

offset( ) Method .................................................................................................................................. 110

offsetParent( ) Method ....................................................................................................................... 112

outerHeight( [margin] ) Method .......................................................................................................... 114

outerWidth( [margin] ) Method .......................................................................................................... 116

position( ) Method .............................................................................................................................. 118

scrollLeft( val ) Method ....................................................................................................................... 120

scrollLeft( ) Method ............................................................................................................................. 121

scrollTop( val ) Method ....................................................................................................................... 123

scrollTop( ) Method ............................................................................................................................. 125

width( val ) Method ............................................................................................................................ 128

width( ) Method .................................................................................................................................. 129

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7. DOM MANIPULATION...................................................................................................... 132

Content Manipulation ......................................................................................................................... 132

DOM Element Replacement ................................................................................................................ 133

Removing DOM Elements ................................................................................................................... 135

Inserting DOM Elements ..................................................................................................................... 136

DOM Manipulation Methods .............................................................................................................. 138

after( content ) Method ...................................................................................................................... 140

append( content ) Method .................................................................................................................. 141

appendTo( selector ) Method .............................................................................................................. 143

before( content ) Method ................................................................................................................... 144

clone( bool ) Method ........................................................................................................................... 146

clone( ) Method................................................................................................................................... 148

empty( ) Method ................................................................................................................................. 149

html( val ) Method .............................................................................................................................. 151

html( ) Method .................................................................................................................................... 152

insertAfter( selector ) Method ............................................................................................................ 155

insertBefore( selector ) Method .......................................................................................................... 157

prepend( content ) Method ................................................................................................................. 159

prependTo( selector ) Method ............................................................................................................ 160

remove( expr ) Method ....................................................................................................................... 162

replaceAll( selector ) Method .............................................................................................................. 164

replaceWith( content ) Method ........................................................................................................... 165

text( val ) Method ............................................................................................................................... 167

text( ) Method ..................................................................................................................................... 169

wrap( elem ) Method .......................................................................................................................... 172

wrap( html ) Method ........................................................................................................................... 174

wrapAll( elem ) Method ...................................................................................................................... 175

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wrapAll( html ) Method....................................................................................................................... 177

wrapInner( elem ) Method .................................................................................................................. 179

wrapInner( html ) Method .................................................................................................................. 181

8. EVENTS HANDLING .......................................................................................................... 184

Binding Event Handlers ....................................................................................................................... 184

Removing Event Handlers ................................................................................................................... 186

Event Types ......................................................................................................................................... 186

The Event Object ................................................................................................................................. 188

The Event Attributes ........................................................................................................................... 188

The Event Methods ............................................................................................................................. 191

preventDefault() Method .................................................................................................................... 192

isDefaultPrevented() Method.............................................................................................................. 193

stopPropagation() Method .................................................................................................................. 195

isPropagationStopped() Method ......................................................................................................... 196

stopImmediatePropagation() Method................................................................................................. 198

isImmediatePropagationStopped() Method ........................................................................................ 200

Event Manipulation Methods .............................................................................................................. 202

bind( type, [data], fn ) Method ............................................................................................................ 203

off( events [, selector ] [, handler(eventObject) ] ) Method ................................................................. 205

hover( over, out ) Method ................................................................................................................... 207

on( events [, selector ] [, data ], handler ) Method .............................................................................. 208

one( type, [data], fn ) Method ............................................................................................................. 210

ready( fn ) Method .............................................................................................................................. 212

trigger( event, [data] ) Method ........................................................................................................... 213

triggerHandler( event, [data] ) Method ............................................................................................... 215

unbind( [type], [fn] ) Method .............................................................................................................. 216

Event Helper Methods ........................................................................................................................ 218

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Trigger Methods .................................................................................................................................. 218

Binding Methods ................................................................................................................................. 218

9. AJAX ................................................................................................................................ 222

Loading Simple Data ............................................................................................................................ 222

Getting JSON Data ............................................................................................................................... 223

Passing Data to the Server .................................................................................................................. 225

JQuery AJAX Methods ......................................................................................................................... 226

JQuery AJAX Events ............................................................................................................................. 249

10. EFFECTS ........................................................................................................................... 264

Showing and Hiding Elements ............................................................................................................. 264

Toggling the Elements ......................................................................................................................... 266

JQuery Effect Methods ........................................................................................................................ 267

UI Library Based Effects ....................................................................................................................... 300

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 1. OVERVIEW jQuery

What is jQuery?
jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library created by John Resig in 2006 with a nice
motto: Write less, do more. jQuery simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling,
animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. jQuery is a JavaScript toolkit
designed to simplify various tasks by writing less code. Here is the list of important core
features supported by jQuery:

 DOM manipulation: The jQuery made it easy to select DOM elements, negotiate them
and modifying their content by using cross-browser open source selector engine called
Sizzle.

 Event handling: The jQuery offers an elegant way to capture a wide variety of events,
such as a user clicking on a link, without the need to clutter the HTML code itself with
event handlers.

 AJAX Support: The jQuery helps you a lot to develop a responsive and feature-rich
site using AJAX technology.

 Animations: The jQuery comes with plenty of built-in animation effects which you can
use in your websites.

 Lightweight: The jQuery is very lightweight library - about 19KB in size (Minified and
gzipped).

 Cross Browser Support: The jQuery has cross-browser support, and works well in
IE 6.0+, FF 2.0+, Safari 3.0+, Chrome and Opera 9.0+

 Latest Technology: The jQuery supports CSS3 selectors and basic XPath syntax.

How to use jQuery?

There are two ways to use jQuery.

 Local Installation − You can download jQuery library on your local machine and
include it in your HTML code.

 CDN Based Version − You can include jQuery library into your HTML code directly
from Content Delivery Network (CDN).

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Local Installation
 Go to the https://jquery.com/download/ to download the latest version available.

 Now, insert downloaded jquery-2.1.3.min.js file in a directory of your website, e.g.

/jquery.

Example
Now, you can include jquery library in your HTML file as follows:

<html>
<head>
<title>The jQuery Example</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/jquery/jquery-2.1.3.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
document.write("Hello, World!");
});
</script>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello</h1>

</body>
</html>

This will produce the following result −

Hello, World!

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CDN Based Version

You can include jQuery library into your HTML code directly from Content Delivery Network
(CDN). Google and Microsoft provides content deliver for the latest version.

We are using Google CDN version of the library throughout this tutorial.

Example
Now let us rewrite above example using jQuery library from Google CDN.

<html>
<head>
<title>The jQuery Example</title>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.3/jquery.min.js">
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
document.write("Hello, World!");
});
</script>
</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello</h1>

</body>
</html>

This will produce the following result:

Hello, World!

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How to Call a jQuery Library Functions?

As almost everything, we do when using jQuery reads or manipulates the document object
model (DOM), we need to make sure that we start adding events etc. as soon as the DOM is
ready.

If you want an event to work on your page, you should call it inside the $(document).ready()
function. Everything inside it will load as soon as the DOM is loaded and before the page
contents are loaded.

To do this, we register a ready event for the document as follows:

$(document).ready(function() {
// do stuff when DOM is ready
});

To call upon any jQuery library function, use HTML script tags as shown below:

<html>
<head>
<title>The jQuery Example</title>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="/jquery/jquery-1.3.2.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">

// <![CDATA[
$(document).ready(function() {
$("div").click(function() {
alert("Hello world!");
});
});
// ]]>
</script>

</head>
<body>
<div id="newdiv">
Click on this to see a dialogue box.
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</div>
</body>
</html>

This will produce the following result:

Click on this to see a dialogue box.

How to Use Custom Scripts?

It is better to write our custom code in the custom JavaScript file : custom.js, as follows:

/* Filename: custom.js */
$(document).ready(function() {
$("div").click(function() {
alert("Hello world!");
});
});

Now we can include custom.js file in our HTML file as follows:

<html>
<head>
<title>The jQuery Example</title>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="/jquery/jquery-1.3.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="/jquery/custom.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="newdiv">
Click on this to see a dialogue box.
</div>
</body>
</html>

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This will produce the following result:

Click on this to see a dialogue box.

Using Multiple Libraries

You can use multiple libraries all together without conflicting each others. For example, you
can use jQuery and MooTool javascript libraries together. You can check jQuery noConflict
Method for more detail.

jQuery noConflict() Method

Many JavaScript libraries use $ as a function or variable name, just as jQuery does. In jQuery's
case, $ is just an alias for jQuery, so all the functionality is available without using $.

Run $.noConflict() method to give control of the $ variable back to whichever library first
implemented it. This helps us to make sure that jQuery doesn't conflict with the $ object of
other libraries.

Here is a simple way of avoiding any conflict:

// Import other Library

// Import jQuery Library
$.noConflict();
// Code that uses other library's $ can follow here.

This technique is especially effective in conjunction with the .ready() method's ability to alias
the jQuery object, as within the .ready() we can use $ if we wish without fear of conflicts
later:

// Import other library

// Import jQuery
$.noConflict();
jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
// Code that uses jQuery's $ can follow here.
});
// Code that uses other library's $ can follow here.

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What is Next ?
Do not worry too much if you did not understand the above examples. You are going to grasp
them very soon in subsequent chapters. In the next chapter, we would try to cover few basic
concepts which are coming from conventional JavaScript.

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 2. BASICS jQuery

jQuery is a framework built using JavaScript capabilities. So, you can use all the functions
and other capabilities available in JavaScript. This chapter would explain most basic concepts
but frequently used in jQuery.

String
A string in JavaScript is an immutable object that contains none, one or many characters.
Following are the valid examples of a JavaScript String:

"This is JavaScript String"

'This is JavaScript String'
'This is "really" a JavaScript String'
"This is 'really' a JavaScript String"

Numbers
Numbers in JavaScript are double-precision 64-bit format IEEE 754 values. They are
immutable, just as strings. Following are the valid examples of a JavaScript Numbers:

5350
120.27
0.26

Boolean
A boolean in JavaScript can be either true or false. If a number is zero, it defaults to false.
If there is an empty string, it defaults to false.

Following are the valid examples of a JavaScript Boolean:

true // true
false // false
0 // false
1 // true
"" // false
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"hello" // true

Objects
JavaScript supports Object concept very well. You can create an object using the object literal
as follows:

var emp = {
name: "Zara",
age: 10
};

You can write and read properties of an object using the dot notation as follows:

// Getting object properties

emp.name // ==> Zara
emp.age // ==> 10

// Setting object properties

emp.name = "Daisy" // <== Daisy
emp.age = 20 // <== 20

Arrays
You can define arrays using the array literal as follows:

var x = [];
var y = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

An array has a length property that is useful for iteration:

var x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

for (var i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
// Do something with x[i]
}

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Functions
A function in JavaScript can be either named or anonymous. A named function can be defined
using function keyword as follows:

function named(){
// do some stuff here
}

An anonymous function can be defined in similar way as a normal function but it would not
have any name. An anonymous function can be assigned to a variable or passed to a method
as shown below.

var handler = function (){

// do some stuff here
}

JQuery makes a use of anonymous functions very frequently as follows:

$(document).ready(function(){
// do some stuff here
});

Arguments
JavaScript variable arguments is a kind of array which has length property. Following example
shows it very well:

function func(x){
console.log(typeof x, arguments.length);
}
func(); //==> "undefined", 0
func(1); //==> "number", 1
func("1", "2", "3"); //==> "string", 3

The arguments object also has a callee property, which refers to the function you're inside.
For example:

function func() {
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return arguments.callee;
}
func(); // ==> func

Context
JavaScript famous keyword this always refers to the current context. Within a function
thiscontext can change, depending on how the function is called:

$(document).ready(function() {
// this refers to window.document
});

$("div").click(function() {
// this refers to a div DOM element
});

You can specify the context for a function call using the function-built-in methods call() and
apply() methods. The difference between them is how they pass arguments. Call passes all
arguments through as arguments to the function, while apply accepts an array as the
arguments.

function scope() {
console.log(this, arguments.length);
}

scope() // window, 0
scope.call("foobar", [1,2]); //==> "foobar", 1
scope.apply("foobar", [1,2]); //==> "foobar", 2

Scope
The scope of a variable is the region of your program in which it is defined. JavaScript variable
will have only two scopes.

 Global Variables: A global variable has global scope which means it is defined
everywhere in your JavaScript code.

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 Local Variables: A local variable will be visible only within a function where it is
defined. Function parameters are always local to that function.

Within the body of a function, a local variable takes precedence over a global variable with
the same name:

var myVar = "global"; // ==> Declare a global variable

function ( ) {
var myVar = "local"; // ==> Declare a local variable
document.write(myVar); // ==> local
}

Callback
A callback is a plain JavaScript function passed to some method as an argument or option.
Some callbacks are just events, called to give the user a chance to react when a certain state
is triggered. jQuery's event system uses such callbacks everywhere for example:

$("body").click(function(event) {
console.log("clicked: " + event.target);
});

Most callbacks provide arguments and a context. In the event-handler example, the callback
is called with one argument, an Event. Some callbacks are required to return something,
others make that return value optional. To prevent a form submission, a submit event handler
can return false as follows:

$("#myform").submit(function() {
return false;
});

Closures
Closures are created whenever a variable that is defined outside the current scope is accessed
from within some inner scope. Following example shows how the variable counter is visible
within the create, increment, and print functions, but not outside of them:

function create() {
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var counter = 0;
return {
increment: function() {
counter++;
},
print: function() {
console.log(counter); }
}
}
var c = create();
c.increment();
c.print(); // ==> 1

This pattern allows you to create objects with methods that operate on data that isn't visible
to the outside world. It should be noted that data hiding is the very basis of object-oriented
programming.

Proxy Pattern
A proxy is an object that can be used to control access to another object. It implements the
same interface as this other object and passes on any method invocations to it. This other
object is often called the real subject. A proxy can be instantiated in place of this real subject
and allow it to be accessed remotely. We can saves jQuery's setArray method in a closure
and overwrites it as follows:

(function() {
// log all calls to setArray
var proxied = jQuery.fn.setArray;

jQuery.fn.setArray = function() {
console.log(this, arguments);
return proxied.apply(this, arguments);
};
})();

The above wraps its code in a function to hide the proxied variable. The proxy then logs all
calls to the method and delegates the call to the original method. Using apply(this,
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arguments) guarantees that the caller won't be able to notice the difference between the
original and the proxied method.

Built-in Functions
JavaScript comes along with a useful set of built-in functions. These methods can be used to
manipulate Strings, Numbers and Dates.

Following are the important JavaScript functions:

Method Description

charAt() Returns the character at the specified index.

concat() Combines the text of two strings and returns a new string.

forEach() Calls a function for each element in the array.

indexOf() Returns the index within the calling String object of the first
occurrence of the specified value, or -1 if not found.

length() Returns the length of the string.

pop() Removes the last element from an array and returns that
element.

push() Adds one or more elements to the end of an array and returns
the new length of the array.

reverse() Reverses the order of the elements of an array -- the first

becomes the last, and the last becomes the first.

sort() Sorts the elements of an array.

substr() Returns the characters in a string beginning at the specified

location through the specified number of characters.

toLowerCase() Returns the calling string value converted to lower case.

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toString() Returns the string representation of the number's value.

toUpperCase() Returns the calling string value converted to uppercase.

A complete list of JavaScript built-in function is available here − Built-in Functions.

The Document Object Model

The Document Object Model is a tree structure of various elements of HTML as follows:

<html>
<head>
<title>the title</title>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p>This is second paragraph.</p>
<p>This is third paragraph.</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

This will produce the following result:

This is a paragraph.

This is second paragraph.

This is third paragraph

Following are the important points about the above tree structure:

 The <html> is the ancestor of all the other elements; in other words, all the other
elements are descendants of <html>.

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 The <head> and <body> elements are not only descendants, but children of <html>,
as well.

 Likewise, in addition to being the ancestor of <head> and <body>, <html> is also
their parent.

 The <p> elements are children (and descendants) of <div>, descendants of <body>
and <html>, and siblings of each other <p> elements.

While learning jQuery concepts, it will be helpful to have understanding on DOM, if you are
not aware of DOM, then I would suggest you to go through our simple tutorial on DOM Tutorial.

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 3. SELECTORS jQuery

The jQuery library harnesses the power of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) selectors to let us
quickly and easily access elements or groups of elements in the Document Object Model
(DOM).

A jQuery Selector is a function which makes use of expressions to find out matching elements
from a DOM based on the given criteria.

The $() Factory Function

All type of selectors available in jQuery, always start with the dollar sign and parentheses:$().
The factory function $() makes use of the following three building blocks while selecting
elements in a given document:

S.N. Selector & Description

1 Tag Name

Represents a tag name available in the DOM. For example $('p') selects all
paragraphs <p> in the document.

2 Tag ID

Represents a tag available with the given ID in the DOM. For example $('#some-
id') selects the single element in the document that has an ID of some-id.

3 Tag Class

Represents a tag available with the given class in the DOM. For example
$('.some-class') selects all elements in the document that have a class of some-
class.

All the above items can be used either on their own or in combination with other selectors.
All the jQuery selectors are based on the same principle except some tweaking.

NOTE: The factory function $() is a synonym of jQuery() function. So in case you are using
any other JavaScript library where $ sign is conflicting with some thing else then you can
replace $ sign by jQuery name and you can use function jQuery() instead of $().

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Example
Following is a simple example which makes use of Tag Selector. This would select all the
elements with a tag name p.

<html>
<head>
<title>the title</title>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="/jquery/jquery-1.3.2.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
var pars = $("p");
for( i=0; i<pars.length; i++ ){
alert("Found paragraph: " + pars[i].innerHTML);
}
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<p class="myclass">This is a paragraph.</p>
<p id="myid">This is second paragraph.</p>
<p>This is third paragraph.</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

This will produce the the following result:

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How to Use Selectors?

The selectors are very useful and would be required at every step while using jQuery. They
get the exact element that you want from your HTML document.

Following table lists down few basic selectors and explains them with examples.

S.N. Selector & Description

1 Name

Selects all elements which match with the given element Name.

2 #ID

Selects a single element which matches with the given ID.

3 .Class

Selects all elements which matches with the given Class.

4 Universal (*)

Selects all elements available in a DOM.

5 Multiple Elements E, F, G

Selects the combined results of all the specified selectors E, F or G.

jQuery - Element Name Selector

Description
The element selector selects all the elements that have a tag name of T.

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Syntax
Here is the simple syntax to use this selector −

$('tagname')

Parameters
Here is the description of all the parameters used by this selector −

 tagname − Any standard HTML tag name like div, p, em, img, li etc.

Returns
Like any other jQuery selector, this selector also returns an array filled with the found
elements.

Example
 $('p') − Selects all elements with a tag name of p in the document.
 $('div') − Selects all elements with a tag name of div in the document.

Following example would select all the divisions and will apply yellow color to their background
−

<html>
<head>
<title>The Selecter Example</title>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.3/jquery.min.js">
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
/* This would select all the divisions */
$("div").css("background-color", "yellow");
});
</script>
</head>

28
 jQuery

<body>

<div class="big" id="div1">

<p>This is first division of the DOM.</p>
</div>

<div class="medium" id="div2">

<p>This is second division of the DOM.</p>
</div>

<div class="small" id="div3">

<p>This is third division of the DOM</p>
</div>

</body>

</html>

This will produce the following result:

This is first division of the DOM.

This is second division of the DOM.

This is third division of the DOM

jQuery - Element ID Selector

Description
The element ID selector selects a single element with the given id attribute.

Syntax
Here is the simple syntax to use this selector −

$('#elementid')

29
 jQuery

Parameters
Here is the description of all the parameters used by this selector −

 Elementid: This would be an element ID. If the id contains any special characters like
periods or colons you have to escape those characters with backslashes.

Returns
Like any other jQuery selector, this selector also returns an array filled with the found
element.

Example
 $('#myid') − Selects a single element with the given id myid.
 $('div#yourid') − Selects a single division with the given id yourid.

Following example would select second division and will apply yellow color to its background
as below:

<html>
<head>
<title>The Selecter Example</title>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.3/jquery.min.js">
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
/* This would select second division only*/
$("#div2").css("background-color", "yellow");
});
</script>

</head>

<body>

<div class="big" id="div1">

<p>This is first division of the DOM.</p>
30
 jQuery

</div>

<div class="medium" id="div2">

<p>This is second division of the DOM.</p>
</div>

<div class="small" id="div3">

<p>This is third division of the DOM</p>
</div>

</body>

</html>

This will produce the following result:

This is first division of the DOM.

This is second division of the DOM.

This is third division of the DOM

jQuery - Element Class Selector

Description
The element class selector selects all the elements which match with the given class of the
elements.

Syntax
Here is the simple syntax to use this selector:

$('.classid')

Parameters
Here is the description of all the parameters used by this selector −

 classid − This is class ID available in the document.

31
 jQuery

Returns
Like any other jQuery selector, this selector also returns an array filled with the found
elements.

Example
 $('.big') − Selects all the elements with the given class ID big.
 $('p.small') − Selects all the paragraphs with the given class ID small.
 $('.big.small') − Selects all the elements with a class of big and small.

Following example would select all divisions with class .big and will apply yellow color
to its background

<html>
<head>
<title>The Selecter Example</title>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.3/jquery.min.js">
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
/* This would select second division only*/
$(".big").css("background-color", "yellow");
});
</script>

</head>

<body>

<div class="big" id="div1">

<p>This is first division of the DOM.</p>
</div>

<div class="medium" id="div2">

32
 jQuery

<p>This is second division of the DOM.</p>

</div>

<div class="small" id="div3">

<p>This is third division of the DOM</p>
</div>

</body>

</html>

This will produce the following result:

This is first division of the DOM.

This is second division of the DOM.

This is third division of the DOM

jQuery - Universal Selector

Description
The universal selector selects all the elements available in the document.

Syntax
Here is the simple syntax to use this selector −

$('*')

Parameters
Here is the description of all the parameters used by this selector −

* − A symbolic star.

33
 jQuery

Returns
Like any other jQuery selector, this selector also returns an array filled with the found
elements.

Example
 $('*') selects all the elements available in the document.

Following example would select all the elements and will apply yellow color to their
background. Try to understand that this selector will select every element including head,
body etc.

<html>
<head>
<title>The Selecter Example</title>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.3/jquery.min.js">
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
/* This would select all the elements */
$("*").css("background-color", "yellow");
});
</script>

</head>

<body>

<div class="big" id="div1">

<p>This is first division of the DOM.</p>
</div>

<div class="medium" id="div2">

<p>This is second division of the DOM.</p>

34
 jQuery

</div>

<div class="small" id="div3">

<p>This is third division of the DOM</p>
</div>

</body>

</html>

This will produce the following result:

This is first division of the DOM.

This is second division of the DOM.

This is third division of the DOM

jQuery - Multiple Elements Selector

Description
This Multiple Elements selector selects the combined results of all the specified selectors E, F
or G.

You can specify any number of selectors to combine into a single result. Here order of the
DOM elements in the jQuery object aren't necessarily identical.

Syntax
Here is the simple syntax to use this selector −

$('E, F, G,....')

Parameters
Here is the description of all the parameters used by this selector −

 E − Any valid selector

 F − Any valid selector
 G − Any valid selector

Returns
35
 jQuery

Like any other jQuery selector, this selector also returns an array filled with the found
elements.

Example
 $('div, p') − selects all the elements matched by div or p.
 $('p strong, .myclass') − selects all elements matched by strong that are
descendants of an element matched by p as well as all elements that have a class
of myclass.
 $('p strong, #myid') − selects a single elements matched by strong that is
descendant of an element matched by p as well as element whose id is myid.

Following example would select elements with class ID big and element with ID div3 and will
apply yellow color to its background −

<html>
<head>
<title>The Selecter Example</title>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.3/jquery.min.js">
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
$(".big, #div3").css("background-color", "yellow");
});
</script>
</head>

<body>

<div class="big" id="div1">

<p>This is first division of the DOM.</p>
</div>

<div class="medium" id="div2">

36
 jQuery

<p>This is second division of the DOM.</p>

</div>

<div class="small" id="div3">

<p>This is third division of the DOM</p>
</div>

</body>

</html>

This will produce the following result:

This is first division of the DOM.

This is second division of the DOM.

This is third division of the DOM

Selectors Examples
Similar to above syntax and examples, the following examples would give you understanding
on using different type of other useful selectors:

S.N. Selector & Description

1 $('*')

This selector selects all elements in the document.

2 $("p > *")

This selector selects all elements that are children of a paragraph element.

3 $("#specialID")

This selector function gets the element with id="specialID".

4 $(".specialClass")

37
 jQuery

This selector gets all the elements that have the class of specialClass.

5 $("li:not(.myclass)")

Selects all elements matched by <li> that do not have class="myclass".

6 $("a#specialID.specialClass")

This selector matches links with an id of specialID and a class of specialClass.

7 $("p a.specialClass")

This selector matches links with a class of specialClass declared within <p>
elements.

8 $("ul li:first")

This selector gets only the first <li> element of the <ul>.

9 $("#container p")

Selects all elements matched by <p> that are descendants of an element that
has an id of container.

10 $("li > ul")

Selects all elements matched by <ul> that are children of an element matched
by <li>

11 $("strong + em")

Selects all elements matched by <em> that immediately follow a sibling element
matched by <strong>.

12 $("p ~ ul")

Selects all elements matched by <ul> that follow a sibling element matched by
<p>.

13 $("code, em, strong")

Selects all elements matched by <code> or <em> or <strong>.

38
 jQuery

14 $("p strong, .myclass")

Selects all elements matched by <strong> that are descendants of an element

matched by <p> as well as all elements that have a class of myclass.

15 $(":empty")

Selects all elements that have no children.

16 $("p:empty")

Selects all elements matched by <p> that have no children.

17 $("div[p]")

Selects all elements matched by <div> that contain an element matched by <p>.

18 $("p[.myclass]")

Selects all elements matched by <p> that contain an element with a class
ofmyclass.

19 $("a[@rel]")

Selects all elements matched by <a> that have a rel attribute.

20 $("input[@name=myname]")

Selects all elements matched by <input> that have a name value exactly equal
tomyname.

21 $("input[@name^=myname]")

Selects all elements matched by <input> that have a name value beginning
withmyname.

22 $("a[@rel$=self]")

Selects all elements matched by <a> that have rel attribute value ending with
self.

23 $("a[@href*=domain.com]")

39
 jQuery

Selects all elements matched by <a> that have a href value containing
domain.com.

24 $("li:even")

Selects all elements matched by <li> that have an even index value.

25 $("tr:odd")

Selects all elements matched by <tr> that have an odd index value.

26 $("li:first")

Selects the first <li> element.

27 $("li:last")

Selects the last <li> element.

28 $("li:visible")

Selects all elements matched by <li> that are visible.

29 $("li:hidden")

Selects all elements matched by <li> that are hidden.

30 $(":radio")

Selects all radio buttons in the form.

31 $(":checked")

Selects all checked boxes in the form.

32 $(":input")

Selects only form elements (input, select, textarea, button).

33 $(":text")

Selects only text elements (input[type=text]).

40
 jQuery

34 $("li:eq(2)")

Selects the third <li> element.

35 $("li:eq(4)")

Selects the fifth <li> element.

36 $("li:lt(2)")

Selects all elements matched by <li> element before the third one; in other
words, the first two <li> elements.

37 $("p:lt(3)")

Selects all elements matched by <p> elements before the fourth one; in other
words the first three <p> elements.

38 $("li:gt(1)")

Selects all elements matched by <li> after the second one.

39 $("p:gt(2)")

Selects all elements matched by <p> after the third one.

40 $("div/p")

Selects all elements matched by <p> that are children of an element matched by
<div>.

41 $("div//code")

Selects all elements matched by <code>that are descendants of an element

matched by <div>.

42 $("//p//a")

Selects all elements matched by <a> that are descendants of an element

matched by <p>

43 $("li:first-child")

41
 jQuery

Selects all elements matched by <li> that are the first child of their parent.

44 $("li:last-child")

Selects all elements matched by <li> that are the last child of their parent.

45 $(":parent")

Selects all elements that are the parent of another element, including text.

46 $("li:contains(second)")

Selects all elements matched by <li> that contain the text second.

You can use all the above selectors with any HTML/XML element in generic way. For example
if selector $("li:first") works for <li> element then $("p:first") would also work for <p>
element.

42
 jQuery

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