## .find( selector )Returns: jQuery

Description: Get the descendants of each element in the current set of matched elements, filtered by a selector, jQuery object, or element.

- #### version added: 1.0.find( selector )

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

- #### version added: 1.6.find( element )

  - element
    Type: Element or jQuery
    An element or a jQuery object to match elements against.

Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the `.find()` method allows us to search through the descendants of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object from the matching elements. The `.find()` and `.children()` methods are similar, except that the latter only travels a single level down the DOM tree.

The first signature for the `.find()`method accepts a selector expression of the same type that we can pass to the `$()` function. The elements will be filtered by testing whether they match this selector. The expressions allowed include selectors like `> p` which will find all the paragraphs that are children of the elements in the jQuery object.

Consider a page with a basic nested list on it:

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    <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 II, we can find list items within it:

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    $( "li.item-ii" ).find( "li" ).css( "background-color", "red" );

The result of this call is a red background on items A, B, 1, 2, 3, and C. Even though item II matches the selector expression, it is not included in the results; only descendants are considered candidates for the match.

Unlike most of the tree traversal methods, the selector expression is required in a call to `.find()`. If we need to retrieve all of the descendant elements, we can pass in the universal selector `'*'` to accomplish this.

Selector context is implemented with the `.find()` `method;` therefore, `$( "li.item-ii" ).find( "li" )` is equivalent to `$( "li", "li.item-ii" )`.

As of jQuery 1.6, we can also filter the selection with a given jQuery collection or element. With the same nested list as above, if we start with:

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    var allListElements = $( "li" );

And then pass this jQuery object to find:

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    $( "li.item-ii" ).find( allListElements );

This will return a jQuery collection which contains only the list elements that are descendants of item II.

Similarly, an element may also be passed to find:

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    var item1 = $( "li.item-1" )[ 0 ];$( "li.item-ii" ).find( item1 ).css( "background-color", "red" );

The result of this call would be a red background on item 1.

## Examples:

Starts with all paragraphs and searches for descendant span elements, same as `$( "p span" )`

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    <!doctype html><html lang="en"><head>  <meta charset="utf-8">  <title>find demo</title>  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script></head><body> <p><span>Hello</span>, how are you?</p><p>Me? I'm <span>good</span>.</p> <script>$( "p" ).find( "span" ).css( "color", "red" );</script> </body></html>

#### Demo:

A selection using a jQuery collection of all span tags. Only spans within p tags are changed to red while others are left blue.

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    <!doctype html><html lang="en"><head>  <meta charset="utf-8">  <title>find demo</title>  <style>  span {    color: blue;  }  </style>  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script></head><body> <p><span>Hello</span>, how are you?</p><p>Me? I'm <span>good</span>.</p><div>Did you <span>eat</span> yet?</div> <script>var spans = $( "span" );$( "p" ).find( spans ).css( "color", "red" );</script> </body></html>

#### Demo:

Add spans around each word then add a hover and italicize words with the letter t.

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    <!doctype html><html lang="en"><head>  <meta charset="utf-8">  <title>find demo</title>  <style>  p {    font-size: 20px;    width: 200px;    color: blue;    font-weight: bold;    margin: 0 10px;  }  .hilite {    background: yellow;  }  </style>  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script></head><body> <p>  When the day is short  find that which matters to you  or stop believing</p> <script>var newText = $( "p" ).text().split( " " ).join( "</span> <span>" );newText = "<span>" + newText + "</span>"; $( "p" )  .html( newText )  .find( "span" )    .hover(function() {      $( this ).addClass( "hilite" );    }, function() {      $( this ).removeClass( "hilite" );    })  .end()  .find( ":contains('t')" )    .css({      "font-style": "italic",      "font-weight": "bolder"    });</script> </body></html>

#### Demo: