# .children()

## children ( selector ) Returns: jQuery version added: 1.0

- selector
  Type: Selector
  A string containing a selector expression to match elements against.

Description: Get the children of each element in the set of matched elements, optionally filtered by a selector.

Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the `.children()` method allows us to search through the children of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object from the matching elements. The `.children()` method differs from `.find()` in that `.children()` only travels a single level down the DOM tree while `.find()` can traverse down multiple levels to select descendant elements (grandchildren, etc.) as well. Note also that like most jQuery methods, `.children()` does not return text nodes; to get all children including text and comment nodes, use `.contents()`.

The `.children()` method optionally accepts a selector expression of the same type that we can pass to the `$()` function. If the selector is supplied, the elements will be filtered by testing whether they match it.

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 the level-2 list, we can find its children:

    $( "ul.level-2" ).children().css( "background-color", "red" );

The result of this call is a red background behind items A, B, and C. Since we do not supply a selector expression, all of the children are part of the returned jQuery object. If we had supplied one, only the matching items among these three would be included.

## Examples:

#### Example: Find all children of the clicked element.

    <!doctype html>
    <html lang="en">
    <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8">
      <title>css demo</title>

      <style>

      body {
        font-size: 16px;
        font-weight: bolder;
      }
      div {
        width: 130px;
        height: 82px;
        margin: 10px;
        float: left;
        border: 1px solid blue;
        padding: 4px;
      }
      #container {
        width: auto;
        height: 105px;
        margin: 0;
        float: none;
        border: none;
      }
      .hilite {
        border-color: red;
      }
      #results {
        display: block;
        color: red;
      }
      p, span, em, a, b, button {
        border: 1px solid transparent;
      }
      p {
        margin: 10px;
      }
      span {
        color: blue;
      }
      input {
        width: 100px;
      }

      </style>

      <script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>

    <div id="container">
      <div>
        <p>This <span>is the <em>way</em> we</span>
          write <em>the</em> demo,</p>
      </div>

      <div>
        <a href="#"><b>w</b>rit<b>e</b></a> the <span>demo,</span> <button>write
        the</button> demo,
      </div>

      <div>
        This <span>the way we <em>write</em> the <em>demo</em> so</span>
        <input type="text" value="early"> in
      </div>

      <p>
        <span>t</span>he <span>m</span>orning.
        <span id="results">Found <span>0</span> children in <span>TAG</span>.</span>
      </p>
    </div>

    <script>

    $( "#container" ).click(function ( event ) {
      $( "*" ).removeClass( "hilite" );
      var kids = $( event.target ).children();
      var len = kids.addClass( "hilite" ).length;

      $( "#results span:first" ).text( len );
      $( "#results span:last" ).text( event.target.tagName );

      event.preventDefault();
    });

    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo:

#### Example: Find all children of each div.

    <!doctype html>
    <html lang="en">
    <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8">
      <title>css demo</title>

      <style>

      body {
        font-size: 16px;
        font-weight: bolder;
      }
      span {
        color: blue;
      }
      p {
        margin: 5px 0;
      }

      </style>

      <script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>

    <p>Hello (this is a paragraph)</p>

    <div><span>Hello Again (this span is a child of the a div)</span></div>
    <p>And <span>Again</span> (in another paragraph)</p>

    <div>And One Last <span>Time</span> (most text directly in a div)</div>

    <script>

    $( "div" ).children().css( "border-bottom", "3px double red" );

    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo:

#### Example: Find all children with a class "selected" of each div.

    <!doctype html>
    <html lang="en">
    <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8">
      <title>css demo</title>

      <style>

      body {
        font-size: 16px;
        font-weight: bolder;
      }
      p {
        margin: 5px 0;
      }

      </style>

      <script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>

    <div>
      <span>Hello</span>
      <p class="selected">Hello Again</p>
      <div class="selected">And Again</div>
      <p>And One Last Time</p>
    </div>

    <script>

    $( "div" ).children( ".selected" ).css( "color", "blue" );

    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo: