Apply jQuery function to one element and *NOT* its descendants

Question

I want to add certain classes to the various levels of my websites nav header. So I'll have something in the end like

$('#navCol > ul > li > ul > li > ul').addClass('lvl2');
    // Each ‘li > ul’ past the first ‘ul’ indicates another sub-level.

to add the lvl2 class to the second level, etc. Having said that, not only does it apply said class to the second level, it also adds it to the other uls beneath it. Is there a way to specify that I only want to include the element and not its descendants.

Answer 1

Try something like

$('#navCol > ul > li > ul > li').children("ul").each(function() {
    $(this).addClass('lvl2');
});

or if you just want the first url, try something like

$('#navCol > ul > li > ul > li').children("ul:first").each(function() {
    $(this).addClass('lvl2');
});