how to limit the jquery search scope

Question

It looks like JQuery does the search in the current document when using a selector.

How to search for an element only inside a div

Answer 1

jQuery selectors work very much like CSS selectors, which you may be more familiar with.

First, select the div, and then descend from that:

$('#my-div').find('some-selector').

or build your selector to match children of the element in question:

$('#my-div some-selector')

Answer 2

Old question, but everyone seems to have missed the scoped jQuery selector (using the scope you desired, i.e. your div selector, as the second parameter)

e.g. use

var $matches = $('.adiv', '#mydiv');

This is a shorter equivalent of:

var $matches = $('#mydiv').find('.adiv');

Answer 3

jQuery provides several ways to search for specific elements:

$("#your_div").find(".your_things");        //Find everything inside
  //-or-
$("#your_div").filter(".your_things");      //Find only the top level
  //-or-
$("#your_div .your_things");                //Easiest

Answer 4

$('div-selector').find('the selector-you-are-looking-for');

Answer 5

var elems = jQuery(".foo", jQuery("#divYourWantToLimitTo") );  //BAD
//or
var elems = jQuery("#divYourWantToLimitTo .foo");  //Better
//or
var elems = jQuery("#divYourWantToLimitTo").find(".foo");  //BEST

Answer 6

var elements = $('div ' + yourSearch);