Description: Get the ancestors of each element in the current set of matched elements, optionally filtered by a selector.
.parents( [ selector ] )
version added: 1.0
selector
A string containing a selector expression to match elements against.
Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the .parents() method allows us to search through the ancestors of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object from the matching elements ordered from immediate parent on up. The .parents() and .parent() methods are similar, except that the latter only travels a single level up the DOM tree.
The 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 item A, we can find its ancestors:
$('li.item-a').parents().css('background-color', 'red');
The result of this call is a red background for the level-2 list, item II, and the level-1 list (and on up the DOM tree all the way to the <html> element). Since we do not supply a selector expression, all of the ancestors are part of the returned jQuery object. If we had supplied one, only the matching items among these would be included.
Examples
Example 1
Find all parent elements of each b.Example 1 - Full source:
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ var parentEls = $("b").parents() .map(function () { return this.tagName; }) .get().join(", "); $("b").append("<strong>" + parentEls + "</strong>"); }); </script> <style> b { color:blue; } strong { color:red; } </style> </head> <body> <div> <p> <span> <b>My parents are: </b> </span> </p> </div> </body> </html>
Example 2
Click to find all unique div parent elements of each span.
function showParents() {
$("div").css("border-color", "white");
var len = $("span.selected")
.parents("div")
.css("border", "2px red solid")
.length;
$("b").text("Unique div parents: " + len);
}
$("span").click(function () {
$(this).toggleClass("selected");
showParents();
});
Example 2 - Full source:
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ function showParents() { $("div").css("border-color", "white"); var len = $("span.selected") .parents("div") .css("border", "2px red solid") .length; $("b").text("Unique div parents: " + len); } $("span").click(function () { $(this).toggleClass("selected"); showParents(); }); }); </script> <style> p, div, span {margin:2px; padding:1px; } div { border:2px #3c3c3c solid; } span { cursor:pointer; font-size:12px; } .selected { color:blue; } b { color:red; display:block; font-size:14px; } </style> </head> <body> <p> <div> <div><span>Hello</span></div> <span>Hello Again</span> </div> <div> <span>And Hello Again</span> </div> </p> <b>Click Hellos to toggle their parents.</b> </body> </html>
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