What is the difference direct descendent (>) vs. descendant in jQuery selectors?

Question

What\'s the difference between these two jQuery statements? They seem to do the same thing by getting all the children div tags.

$(\"#mainblock div\")
         


        

Answer 1

$("#mainblock div")

This one target all DIVs inside "#mainblock" not matter it's direct child of "#mainblock", or child of child of main block or so on.

$("#mainblock > div")

This will target only direct child DIVs of "#mainblock" and ignore other DIVs. This one is faster then above in case you have only direct childs. Because it's not try to find inside other elements of childs.