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jqueryjquery-selectorsjquery-context

What is the second argument in this jquery select statement?

I have seen it here. What is meant by tbl in the following statement? What does it imply?

var rows = $('tr', tbl);
Solution

  • The tbl in the above is another dom element. This is passed in as the (optional parameter) context: 

    jQuery( selector [, context ] )

    ...for the selector, in this case 'tr'.

    source

    So essentially this:

    $('tr', tbl);

    says return me everything that matches the selector 'tr' in the element(s) tbl.

    Example

    So given

    <table>
  <tr>first</tr>
<table>
<table id="test">
   <tr>second</tr>
</table>

    This returns varying results:

    //context is global
$('tr') => first & second

//restrict the context to just the second table 
//by finding it and passing it into the selector
var tbl = $('#test');
$('tr', tbl) => just second