parent vs closest

Question

Why does this work:

$(\'.button_30\').click(function(){
    $(this).closest(\'.portlet\').find(\'.portlet_content\').text(\"foo\");
});​

an

Answer 1

• .parent() only looks at the immediate ancestor.

• .closest() looks at all ancestors, as well as the originating element, and returns the first match.

• .parents() looks at all ancestors, and returns all matches.