jQuery get value within child div

Answer 1

You want to use children() and text() instead of val(). Although, since what you are selecting has an id (and ids must be unique), you could also simply select based on the id without involving the container element at all.

The val() method only works on input elements, textareas, and selects -- basically all form elements that contain data. To get the textual contents of a container, you need to use text() (or html(), if you want the mark up as well).

var text_val = $('#second_child').text(); //preferred

or

var text_val = $('#first').children('#second_child').text(); // yours, corrected