jQuery find li with class until

Question

This might be tricky.

Php will generate:

<li>element</li>
<li>element</li>
<li class="alt">element</li>
<li class="alt">element</li>
<li class="alt">element</li>
<li>element</li>
<li>element</li>
<li class="alt">element</li>
<li class="alt">element</li>
<li class="alt">element</li>
<li>element</li>

What I need is a way to find the li elements with the .alt class until the li elements start. So...

<li>element</li>
<li>element</li> // if I click on this one, it will select
<li class="alt">element</li> // this one
<li class="alt">element</li> // and this one
<li class="alt">element</li> // and this one
<li>element</li> // stops selecting here
<li>element</li>
<li class="alt">element</li> // doe not this one
<li class="alt">element</li> // or this one
<li class="alt">element</li> // or any other .alt
<li>element</li>

I tried doing this with .find(), but I can't find a way to divide the .alt elements into groups and isolate the first one.

Any braniacs there with a good idea?

Answer 1

try (couple of edits but think I have it)

$('li:contains(element)').click().find('li:contains(element):not[alt]:first').prevAll('li.alt');

Answer 2

couldn't you add an extra class for the lis thats gonna be retrieved?

Answer 3

If you're using jquery 1.4 you can use the new nextUntil method.

http://api.jquery.com/nextUntil/

edit - example:

$("li").click(function() {

   $(this).nextUntil("li[class='']").each(function() {           
    console.log($(this));           
   });

});