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Question

jQuery selector on a string only works when surrounded by a div

Answer 1

+16 A:

It is quite easy actually. The way you are searching is using context. So it takes the top-most node in the string, and searches through it's children.

So imagine having the same structure in html, and parsing it:

$('#findme', '<div><div id="findme"></div></div>')

is the same as

$('div').find('#findme')

OR

$('div').children('#findme')

So when you try

$('<div id="findme"></div>').find('#findme')

It obviously has no children.

Dmitri Farkov 2009-05-26 17:03:20

+1 Really well explained ;)

Seb 2009-05-26 17:21:37

I believe it's not ".findme" but "#findme" in your examples. Aside from that, well explained indeed

Pablo Fernandez 2009-05-26 18:10:14

I find it odd the div with the enclosed html tag doesn't work either. Does this mean it is impossible to select a top level div in a string?

Randall Sutton 2009-05-26 19:05:47

@Randall: if you know the string is only a div, doing $('<div id="findme">Hello</div>') is essentially creating the DIV you are looking for - you don't have to find it!

Paolo Bergantino 2009-05-26 19:15:21

Not sure about the html tag, but I doubt thats often encountered.

Dmitri Farkov 2009-05-26 19:33:13

@Randall: As the jQuery documentation notes: "Simple elements without attributes, e.g., "<div />", are created via document.createElement. All other cases are parsed by assigning the string to the .innerHTML property of a div element. The HTML string cannot contain elements that are invalid within a div, such as html, head, body, or title elements." http://docs.jquery.com/Core/jQuery#elements

Paolo Bergantino 2009-05-26 19:42:50

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jQuery selector on a string only works when surrounded by a div

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