Finding appropriate parent with jQuery

Question

Given a DOM element how do I find its nearest parent with a given css class?

$(".editButton").click(function() { (magic container selector goes here).addClass("editing"); });

I don't want to use lots or $(...).parent().parent() since I don't want to be bound to a particular dom structure.

Allain Lalonde · Accepted Answer · 2008-12-18 15:31:25Z

31

This should work

$(this).parents('.classYouWant:first').addClass("editing");

edited Dec 18, 2008 at 15:31

Allain Lalonde

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answered Dec 18, 2008 at 15:18

Bill Zeller

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3 Comments

Jennifer Over a year ago

Am I not right in thinking that all jquery functions actually return a list. If so, you might want to do $(this).parents('.classYouWant:first') (try it!)

Allain Lalonde Over a year ago

@Jennifer: You are correct, if the element had more than 1 parent it would set editing to all of them. You should have posted an answer. I'd accept it.

Jay Corbett Over a year ago

so :first, in this example, gets the nearest parent to $(this) with .classYouWant? so working it's way UP the DOM?

fiatjaf · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-06 20:38:17Z

11

$( this ).closest( '.yourselector' )

As the name tells, finds the closest ancestor for this element.

answered Mar 6, 2012 at 20:38

fiatjaf

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1 Comment

dano Over a year ago

+1 This one is my preference, when I know I'm only after 1 element

RRikesh · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-12 05:28:35Z

3

Use .parents(".yourClass") instead of .parent().

jQuery parents()

edited Dec 12, 2012 at 5:28

RRikesh

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answered Dec 18, 2008 at 15:20

missaghi

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Comments

Rik Heywood · Accepted Answer · 2008-12-18 15:22:06Z

2

You can use the parent selection. eg $(".myclass:parent").something(); will find all the elements with the class myclass that have children.

answered Dec 18, 2008 at 15:22

Rik Heywood

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1 Comment

Allain Lalonde Over a year ago

Although correct, it doesn't address the question since it's not find the parent for a particular dom element.

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