Child Selector ("parent > child")

child ( parent, child ) version added: 1.0

  • parent
    Type: Selector
    Any valid selector.
  • child
    Type: Selector
    A selector to filter the child elements.

Description: Selects all direct child elements specified by "child" of elements specified by "parent".

As a CSS selector, the child combinator is supported by all modern web browsers including Safari, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 7 and above, but notably not by Internet Explorer versions 6 and below. However, in jQuery, this selector (along with all others) works across all supported browsers, including IE6.

The child combinator (E > F) can be thought of as a more specific form of the descendant combinator (E F) in that it selects only first-level descendants.

Examples:

Example: Places a border around all list items that are children of <ul class="topnav"> . 

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

  <style>

  body {
    font-size: 14px;
  }
  
  </style>

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

<ul class="topnav">
  <li>Item 1</li>
  <li>Item 2
    <ul>
    <li>Nested item 1</li>
    <li>Nested item 2</li>
    <li>Nested item 3</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>Item 3</li>
</ul>

<script>

$( "ul.topnav > li" ).css( "border", "3px double red" );

</script>

  
</body>
</html>

Demo: